


Orange is the new leather skirt

by Doctor959



Series: The Umbrella Academy are just a bunch of Misfits [1]
Category: Misfits (TV 2009), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF!Nathan, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Drug Use, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, M/M, Multi, Post-Apocalypse, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:00:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 44,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22386838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doctor959/pseuds/Doctor959
Summary: A Misfits/Umbrella Academy crossover (no need to know either fandom to enjoy)._____________________________________They were walking down what could have been a main street with Vanya in the wheelchair they had knicked from outside some sort of community centre and Five loaded into a rusty shopping trolley.“We need cover.”Klaus spotted the Bowling Alley.“What do you say,meine geschwister? For old time’s sake?”___________________________________________The Apocalypse has been averted.Of course, Five couldn't get the calculations right.The Umbrella Academy land in 2009 outside a community centre in South East London.
Series: The Umbrella Academy are just a bunch of Misfits [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643212
Comments: 95
Kudos: 526





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime in Season 1 of Misfits, before the finale and after the finale of Season 1 of Umbrella Academy.
> 
> Enjoy!

“No, no way, you are not coming back in here.”

A man called Beverely (is Beverley a man’s name?) stormed up to Klaus, his square glasses framing his scowling brow. 

Klaus scoffed.

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

In true Five style, the siblings of the Umbrella Academy had been lifted from the theatre and dumped not only in the wrong time, but also the wrong space. Klaus had been lucky enough to land in an icy puddle in the middle of an unfamiliar street. The little fucker probably did it on purpose. 

“Allison! Diego! Five! Are you all OK?” Luther’s voice bellowed against the hammering rain.. 

“I’m fine, danke for asking big guy,” Klaus grumbled, struggling to his feet. Man, time travel was a bitch. His head was pounding worse than when he thought making cocktails using Sambucca as a mixer was a good idea. 

His shorts were soaked.

Hang on - shorts?

“Fuck a duck! Umbrella uniforms? How is that fair? I blame you Five, you and your penchant for preppy blazers and knee socks.”

“Klaus! Shut. Up!” 

Diego. But not Diego.

No scar across his temple. Still had some facial hair. Leaner around his jaw. 

Klaus looked down at his own hands. Ouija board tattoos - check. Scar from that little mishap with the glass coffee table at that girl’s party (Lizzie?) - missing. He had been, what twenty or twenty-one when that happened? 

He looked up at Luther who was cradling a still-unconscious Vanya in his arms. His not-gorilla arms. 

Allison - her hair still completely brown, eyebrows plucked to oblivion. She was looking wide-eyed at something behind Klaus.

“Five!” 

Klaus spun around. 

Poor Five, he was still stuck in his thirteen-year old body. A body that was sinking fast towards the ground, eyes rolled up to the stormy sky. 

Klaus raced forward but he couldn’t catch him.

Someone else did.

“BEN!” 

Klaus’ mouth hung open for a moment before splitting into a grin. 

“Oh Ben!” He threw his gangly teenaged arms around his brothers, not minding that one had fainted.

“Klaus, for God’s sake, let him breathe. Let me breathe,” Ben added with a smirk. Klaus stepped back and pressed Ben’s cheeks in his hands, knowing that Ben couldn’t swat him away on account of his arms being full with Five. 

“I missed you!” 

“I didn’t miss you,” Ben replied, unable to hide the smirk teasing the corner of his mouth. 

“We need to get out of this rain and re-group,” Luther boomed. 

They seemed to be surrounded by some sort of grey estate-style flats on the bank of a river. Klaus didn’t recognise the area at all. At least the sign on the side of the flats was in English.

“We can use that for Vanya,” Allison suggested, pointing to a wheelchair that was sitting out the front of what looked to be a community centre. 

“What about Five?”

Moments later they were walking down what could have been a main street, Vanya in the wheelchair and Five loaded into a rusty shopping trolley. 

“We need cover.”

Klaus spotted the Bowling Alley. 

“What do you say, _meine geschwister_ i? For old time’s sake?”

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

“You have a lifetime ban.”

“Me? How could I have a lifetime ban when I’ve just set foot in this fine establishment for the first time?” 

Beverley seemed mighty pissed. To be fair, there were seven teenagers in school uniforms dripping on his horrific patterned carpet, one of which was in a wheelchair. Five had woken up and was now groggily hanging onto Ben’s side. 

“Please, it’s my sister’s birthday and she only gets out of the hospital once a year.”

“Don’t you think that accent is going to fool me sonny. I will remember your face until the day I die.” Beverley pointed a chubby finger in Klaus’ face.

“And probably after,” Klaus muttered. Diego dug a sharp elbow into his ribs. 

“Manager to Lane Thirteen. Manager to Laaaane Thirteeeeen.”

Beverley scowled at the PA announcement. He turned back to Klaus. 

“You need to leave by the time I get back.”

It really wasn’t Klaus’ fault. If anything, it was Five’s. 

“I’m going to be sick.” 

With Five’s admission, Luther jumped into action, immediately at the boy’s side. Of course, that meant that Diego also jumped into action. 

“The toilet’s this way.”

“I know, I’ve got it.”

“Quick, before he vomits.”

The two beefheads escorted their grey-looking brother into the toilets of the bowling alley beside the shoe counter. Ben sat down on the joined plastic chairs in the waiting area up the front. Allison was picking at a chipped nail. 

Time travel was thirsty work. Klaus had fully intended to pay for the orange fizzy drink, that is, had he been wearing his tight leather pants with the ten dollar bill tucked into the waistband. Ten dollars should have been enough to cover the drink and some Pick and Mix to share with his siblings. 

Shame he wasn’t wearing his leather pants. 

“Hey, get out of there!”

Beverley was back. His face was as red as a twelve pound bowling ball. 

“I’ll pay! I’ll pay!” he said, flashing his hello hand. He fumbled through his pockets. 

A joint. An empty baggy. A lighter. A loyalty card for Griddy’s.

The look he exchanged with Ben confirmed his problem. Ben rolled his eyes until his head hung back. 

“Oh, Klaus.” Allison just sounded disappointed. 

Beverley lowered his head like a bull ready to attack.

It wasn’t Klaus’ fault that he had such an ingrained flight or fight instinct. 

Beverley charged. Klaus pitched the cup of drink, hitting the rotund man square in the neck. 

Run, run, run. 

It felt good to have young legs again. 

Klaus dodged around the air hockey table. A security guard had joined the chase, a balding man with a thick black moustache. Klaus picked up a paddle and threw it at him.

“Klaus, stop it!” Allison called. She wheeled Vanya closer.

Ben was glaring at him. Oh boy, he was going to be in trouble later.

The guard lunged around one side. Klaus ran towards the lanes, all flailing limbs and bent knees. 

It had worked once, surely it would work again. 

He ran down the perfectly smooth polished wood, wet school shoes gripping the lane. He could hear Beverely hollering behind him. He finished his run with a perfect dive through the pins. 

Klaus had wriggled through a lot of bathroom windows in his life. Hell, only a few days ago his wriggling skills had saved his life in his escape through the vent. Or was that a few months ago?

He got through the gap and scrambled to his feet, running along the dark corridor behind the lanes. He found an emergency exit at the end and pushed the door by the lever, ignoring the dinging of the alarm bell. 

The cold air hit Klaus hard in the face. The rain had picked up and was pelting down even harder than it had been before. He tripped over a milk crate, arms windmilling to keep his balance before taking off down the cobble stoned laneway. He did it, he was free!

He turned a corner back towards where they had landed. If he just got back to that river, hopefully the others would think to double back . . .

Crack.

A mouthful of fabric sent his head snapping backwards. He landed hard on his back.

“Urg.”

He looked up to see an arm extended across the mouth of the alley. An arm belonging to a stern faced, very British looking policeman. A hand grabbed his shoulder roughly and flipped him face first into the drainage dip of the cobble stones. The water smelled rancid. His hands were pulled behind his back. 

“You’re under arrest mate.”

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

Orange was not a colour that Klaus wore, for good reason. He zipped up the jumpsuit to mid chest, rolling the sleeves up to try and give the horrific garment some sort of shape. 

The probation worker banged on a locker. Klaus jumped.

“Christ on a cracker, was that necessary?”

“Hurry up and get that on, then you can meet the others.”

Fuck.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, pretty quick update on this one. I have the whole story planned out and hope to smash it out quickly, but might be a bit ambitious. Enjoy!

“To be honest, I’m surprised this isn’t where he ended up first time around.” 

Luther was pushing Five down the main street in the wheelchair. They’d decided to keep the device after it had proved handy in sweet talking an elderly hostel manager into a room for the night for their poor sister. 

Thankfully, Vanya had woken up that morning with only a small headache and full of apologies. The other siblings had exchanged their own before they set out, having overstayed their welcome at their free accommodation.

“Oh, this happened first time around too. He spent six weeks picking up rubbish along the highway,” Ben added. 

Diego chuckled cruelly. 

“I would have paid to see that.”

Ben kicked a can along the footpath. It was so nice to be able to do that again and for the can to actually move. 

“He wore one of those bandanas around his head like a prison bitch.” 

Even Luther laughed at that. Allison shook her head. 

“I thought you’d be more pissed off,” she said, looking up at Luther. 

“It actually works out well. Community service will keep him out of our hair while we work out what to do.”

Vanya tutted. 

“Don’t be mean. I can’t believe they wouldn’t release him overnight.”

Ben had thought that was weird too. They seemed to think he was someone else who already had a community service order out. The cop at the station hadn’t been able to adequately explain what was going on, only that their brother would be going straight to community service from the station the next morning.

“Should we go see how he’s doing?” asked Ben.

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

“No fuckin’ way.” 

A girl with an accent that Klaus didn’t think was possible was inches from his face. The scent of her sickly sweet perfume almost made his eyes water. She had her hair scraped back into a harsh ponytail that did not flatter her face at all.

“Is that even English?”

“Fucking hell! It’s him! For fuck’s sake - there’s two of them!”

A yappy girl with a stunning set of curls was standing next to her, gnawing on a piece of gum. Klaus should really talk to Allison about letting him have a go at fluffing her hair out like that. 

The probation worker had deposited him with these two girls who were having a smoke on the picnic table overlooking the river, not far from where Klaus had materialised only a day before. The limp-haired man then returned to his office without another word. 

“Two of who?” a tall athletic guy with dark shining muscles asked as he approached the group. He was just wearing a singlet, his jumpsuit tied around his waist. Klaus gave him a wink.

“Whoever you want me to be,” he said in a low voice. The guy crinkled his nose. 

The small curly one shoved his shoulder. Klaus winced. His back was bruised like a peach that had been dropped down a flight of stairs. Those British cops were not gentle. 

“Oi, that’s my boyfriend you’re flirting with.” This girl was savage. Klaus liked her already. That belt bringing in the waist of the jumpsuit was a fine idea. He wondered if it would do anything for his long body.

“OK, no need to get your panties in a twist!” he said, holding his tattooed hands up. The chavy one grabbed his _goodbye_ hand, studying the words inked on his palms.

“Sick tatts.”

“ _Danke_. I have more - oh, I haven’t got those yet!” he laughed. She raised an eyebrow.

“‘Oright then. Well, I’m Kelly. That’s Alisha,” she said, pointing to the girl who had already gone back to texting on her phone. Klaus couldn’t imagine what she’d be doing other than playing Snake II. It was 2009. “That’s Curtis. And that’s Simon.”

A pasty boy who Klaus would bet had never been high or laid crept up to the group, pressing his fringe against his forehead. He looked up and froze, blue eyes big and round. 

“I’m Klaus,” he said with a bow. 

“Why does he look like . . . “

“What are you twats all looking at?”

Curly hair.

Piercing green eyes with lashes even Allison would be jealous of.

Limbs like a giraffe. . . 

“Well hello gorgeous,” Klaus said, clapping his hands together.

The boy looked back at him, eyebrows lost in his curls (longer than Klaus’).

“Well fuck me.”

They circled each other, looking the other up and down. They were exactly the same height. The other boy was slightly more tanned, probably on account of Daddy dearest never letting the kids out of the Academy during the day and Klaus spending most of his time up and about at night anyway. The Irish accented boy had changed the wording on the back of his jumpsuit from COMMUNITY PAYBACK to COMMUNITY BLOWBACK. Klaus bit back a smirk. 

The other boy poked Klaus in the ribs.

“Ouch!” 

Klaus poked him back.

“Fuck off, pervert.”

“You poked me first!”

The other boy stuck his tongue out childishly then pushed past him, head held. The hard slap on his arse took Klaus by surprise.

“Christ!” He shoved the other guy. “Don’t touch what you can’t pay for!”

“He’s even got the same arse!” the other boy exclaimed to his onlookers. 

“How the fuck can you tell that, Nathan?” Kelly chided. 

“What are you getting at?” the other guy, Nathan, asked, pointing back at Klaus. His eyes narrowed as he closed in. Klaus could still smell the joint on his breath. He thought of his own joint that had been taken back at the police station. 

“What are you talking about?” Klaus responded, holding his ground. This kid might think he’s tough but Klaus has been in enough scraps in his life to know that at least some of that Academy training stuck. That, and his willingness to fight dirty, had gotten him out of enough trouble over the years. 

“Why do you look like me?”

Nathan circled around, nose pressed into Klaus’.

“Why do you look like me?”

Nathan pulled himself to full height.

“What’s with the eyeliner?”

Klaus matched his height.

“What’s with your . . . .accent?”

“What’s with yours?” Nathan bit back.

“Nathan, just calm down,” Kelly warned. That just seemed to wind him up more. He stomped his foot.

“I will not calm down until I get answers from this prick about why he’s walking around in my body!”

“It could be a powers thi. . .”

“Shut up Simon!” Alishia cut off. She pressed her lips together, making a cutting signal across her throat. 

“How did you get my face?” Nathan yelled, grabbing Klaus by the front of his jumpsuit. Up close, Klaus could see the small differences. The freckles in the wrong place. The angle of his jaw that was just slightly wrong. Like looking at himself in a mirror turned backwards. Like a double mirror. Like a mirror of a mirror. 

“It’s such a gorgeous face, I couldn’t resist.”

With that, Klaus gave him a peck on the nose.

Green eyes widened before the fist in Klaus’ chest pushed.

Klaus’ fingers tangled in Nathan’s jumpsuit, dragging him off balance. The two boys wrestled, pulling and tugging at each other’s jumpsuits until Nathan kicked at Klaus’ shin sending a sting of pain through his leg.

“Mother fucker!” he said, hopping on one leg. Nathan tried to get the advantage by slipping his arm up above Klaus’. He locked out his arm, holding Nathan at arm’s distance.

Nathan obviously did not grow up with a slew of brothers. 

Klaus threw a bony elbow into Nathan’s chest. He cried out, curling over to protect himself. Klaus tried to untangle himself when Nathan aimed a kick at Klaus’ balls.

He needed those.

Klaus blocked the kick with what was meant to be his thigh. Instead, Nathan’s knee connected directly with his own.

“Argh!” both boys cried out in unison. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Kelly groaned from the sidelines. 

Nathan grabbed Klaus in a bear hug, pressing his fingers into his bruised back. It hurt _a lot_. Klaus desperate to get him off wrapped his own arms around the other boy and pulled him sideways to the ground. Nathan hit the concrete with an oof. 

Within a second, Klaus had managed to straddle Nathan. He grinned down at his doppleganger.

“Usually I’m a bottom, but for you I’ll make an exception.”

“Help! He’s raping me!” Nathan screeched. 

Klaus relaxed his grip.

“Calm your farm, sweetheart,” he said, letting go of his flapping wrists. 

Nathan’s eyes narrowed. Klaus should have seen it coming.

The sneaky shit’s knee connected with a particularly deep bruise on Klaus’ back.

“Fuck!”

Klaus crumpled like an empty crisp packet. Nathan wriggled out from under him and pinned him down by lying over him like a landed fish. 

He couldn’t be bothered fighting back. The little shit could win, he really couldn’t care. He’d fought in ‘Nam. He’d fought in real battles. Klaus was in too much pain.

“Think you’re tough, do ya?”

What would his unit say if he saw him losing a fight to this skinny little twat. What would his Ben say?

Fuck it.

Klaus pictured the little card hanging on the wall of the Academy. He knew this one well because it was directly opposite his bedroom door. The drawing of two children wrestling on the ground.

Flip.

Klaus hooked his leg into position and levered. Nathan flew off him with a force that surprised Klaus. 

“Oi!” another voice yelled out.

The smell of perfume told him that it was Kelly who now had her forearm around his neck.

Nathan took the opportunity to roll back on top of him. His bony elbows dug into Klaus’ chest. Klaus dug his fingers into Nathan’s throat, getting a cry of pain from him.

The gloomy sky suddenly darkened. Maybe he was blacking out.

“Get off me!” Nathan squealed.

Suddenly the pressure in his chest released. The sky got lighter. 

The arm released his neck. Klaus coughed, drawing in breaths that stung his throat.

“Let me go or you gonna get a slap!” That was Kelly’s voice.

“Who are you gonna to slap?”

Oh no. That was Allison.

Which meant . . .

“Get this sadistic prick of me before he drags me back to his sex dungeon!”

That was Nathan’s Irish lilt. Klaus rolled to his side, coughing. 

A strong arm hooked under his armpits and dragged him to his feet so fast Klaus’ head spun. Klaus rested his head against a solid chest. He looked up lovingly into his brother’s eyes.

“Luther. How’s it going?” 

Luther growled. 

Klaus let his head drop and surveyed the scene. 

Nathan was pinned face down on the concrete, Diego’s knee pressed in his back. His hands were pulled tightly back in a maneuver that reeked of his Police Academy days. Allison was staring down Kelly, which wasn’t too difficult with her height. Kelly was having none of it, sneering back.

Five had taken a seat with Alisha and Curtis on the picnic table, sipping on a takeaway coffee. Vanya was next to him just looking plain embarrassed. Ben was standing next to Simon. Team awkward.

Luther threw Klaus to the ground in a sprawl of limbs.

“Explain.”

Klaus looked up at him with wide green eyes.

“It wasn’t me! Why do you always think everything is my fault?”

“Because it always is. Only one day we’ve been back and you have already trashed a bowling alley, gotten arrested, landed in community service . . .” he counted off on his fingers “. . . and now you’re in a fight.”

“I didn’t even start the thing at the bowling alley. That man already had it in for me before we walked in!”

Nathan coughed. The group turned to look at him still pinned to the ground. 

“Did you maybe happen to touch the Pick and Mix?”

“Would you shut up about your Pick and Mix?” Curtis said, playing with the pendant of his necklace between his fingers.

“How did you know?” Klaus answered. He rolled onto bum, long legs stretching out in front of him. 

“No reason. Beverley and I go way back,” Nathan commented mysteriously.

“That was the guy, Beverley!” Klaus looked up at Ben for confirmation. Ben looked at the sky. _Thanks a lot Bentacles. What happened to our ghost-bro connection?_

“Is anyone going to say anything about the elephant in the room?” Diego asked, releasing his knee from Nathan’s back. Nathan arched up to look at Luther.

“I know the guy’s big, but I wouldn’t call blondie here an elephant. That’s just rude.” 

Diego bit back a smirk. 

“He even sounds like him.” Diego said. “Five, is this some time travel shit?” 

Five slid reluctantly from the table and walked over to Nathan. With a glare, he got Diego to let Nathan up. 

“Thank you!” Nathan said indignantly, wiping his hands on Diego’s blazer. He sneered. 

Five looked at Nathan up close, staring eye to eye before tilting his chin upwards in his hand that wasn’t grasping his extra large coffee. He circled around the boy before looking Nathan up and down one last time. He then moved over to Klaus who was still sitting on the ground. Bobbing down, he studied his brother as if seeing him for the first time.

“This isn’t time travel. They look very similar, too similar for it to be anything other than a genetic replication of sorts, but there are enough differences to discount cloning or duplicate selves or . . .”

“In English Five!” 

“I could run the math, but the only explanation that I can see possible is that they are related. Not the way we are. I would say they might even be brothers, or twins.”

“Twins?” both Klaus and Nathan cried out. They looked at each other, then back at Five.

“Please for the love of God, we don’t need two of ‘im,” was Kelly’s response.

“We don’t need two of him either,” Luther added. He shut his mouth when Allison scowled at him. 

“I’ll look into it. In the mean time, have fun picking up trash.” 

Five flashed the boys one of his shit-eating grins.


	3. Chapter 3

Klaus didn’t mind community service. In the afternoon they painted an underpass tunnel, covering up graffiti. He liked the way the paint glided over the concrete, the smooth slide of the brush moving up and down the wall. Up, down. Up, down.

Nathan had painted FUCK in six foot high letters along the wall next to him. 

“What are you, like five?” Kelly asked with a disapproving glare. Nathan flashed her his middle finger, then turned back to his masterpiece.

“I’ll have you know a five year old couldn’t even spell ‘fuck’, or reach this high.”

Curtis shook his head, dipping his paintbrush into the tin. Alisha wasn’t even pretending to paint. She leaned back against her section of wall, one leg bent while she texted on her phone. Simon watched her, smoothing his hair down before returning to his perfectly straight painting. 

A sharp pinch was all the warning Klaus had before his stomach clenched like a rock again. Fuck.

He dropped his paintbrush into the tin, cursing that the handle fell in, then ran into the bushes at the end of the underpass. He barely made it in time before whatever was left in his stomach made a re-appearance splattered over the leaves. 

“Gross!” Alisha complained, scrunching up her nose.

“That’s the third time he’s done that today!” Nathan exclaimed. “Do you think he’s knocked up?”

The group ignored him, wincing as they listened to Klaus hack his guts up around the corner. 

“Now I feel bad for fighting a pregnant boy!”

Klaus finished with a cough, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. It was weird not feeling the facial hair that he wore through his late twenties, instead his face was still clean shaven, or near-enough to without access to a razor. He’d have to sort that out.

It was bad enough getting sober once. It was even worse being thrown back into his drug-addicted younger body straight after just to do it all again. 

Getting sober was seeming like a worse idea the more that he thought about it. His orange jumpsuit was starting to stick to his body in places despite it being far too cold for his body to sweat. The headache that he woke up with in the police cell that morning was throbbing more persistently as the day wore on. 

He was young again. He could take it easier this time, ease off the pills and heavier stuff and definitely not start injecting. Just stay with the weed and alcohol. Maybe coke every now and then - it didn’t last that long and it wasn’t half as addictive as the other crap he used to have. Weave a few clean days in here and there, he should be fine.

The rolling in his gut was calling out the lies he told himself. Klaus didn’t know how to do balance.

Then there was Dave. 

Staying sober meant that he would be able to see his love again. Even if he could conjure Dave now, would he recognise him? Would he still love him?

Klaus noticed that Kelly was watching him. She looked away quickly, pretending to fuss with her paint tin. 

Someone else was watching him. 

He had a bullet hole through his head, blood dribbling down his face. He staggered past Kelly, reaching for Klaus.

_I was going to get the money, I swear. I was going to get the money._

Klaus jammed his eyes shut, turning back to his pile of vomit dripping into the dirt.

That new kid had some seriously fucked up thoughts going on in his head, and that was saying something considering half the time Kelly was reading Nathan’s thoughts. 

“Go check on your bruva,” she said, giving Nathan a shove. 

“He’s not my brother!” Nathan retorted, unconvincingly. Alisha looked up from her phone and scoffed.

“If you two aren’t related, then I’ll let you touch my tits.”

“Hey!” Curtis cut across, shielding Alisha from Nathan’s leering stare. 

“You are on!” 

“Oi! You will not be touching her tits!” Curtis pointed a finger at Nathan, swaggering towards him. 

“Who says you get to say who can touch my tits,” Alisha said, folding her arms in a way that made her boobs press up even more. Kelly stepped between the boys and gave Nathan another shove. She groaned. Fuck, he was an idiot.

“Check on him. Go!”

Kelly pointed towards the exit to the underpass. Nathan pulled a face then threw his paint brush in the dirt, storming off in a huff to where Klaus was doubled over in the bushes. She watched as the new boy scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand as if trying to rub something away.

Klaus wasn’t the first kid around the estate to have problems with pills, and he wouldn’t be the last. It came with the territory. Kelly rarely had a night out without popping one or two to get her through to the morning. She worked hard during the week picking up rubbish and dealing with the other four shitheads, the weekends were her escape. 

Today, however, was a Wednesday. Kelly knew the types of people who were still coming off their gear on a Wednesday. 

Also, what was that fucked up shit he was thinking about with that dead guy? Had he killed someone? Not that Kelly could judge him, but she would definitely be keeping an eye on that one.

“How you doing, Preggo?” 

Nathan gave Klaus a hearty slap on the back. Klaus hissed, pulling away.

“Sorry, didn’t realise I’d roughed you up so bad this morning.” 

Klaus sat on the small retaining wall at the edge of the bushes and drew a knee up to his chest. Nathan still found him weird to look at, almost like when you watch a video of yourself and think, _nah, that can’t be what I look like_. Klaus waved a flippant hand. 

“Sweetie, I’ve had lovers do more damage than that in bed.” Nathan’s face soured as Klaus chuckled. The new kid stretched his back out, twisting side to side.

“Those cops just went a bit hard on the old back,” Klaus said, giving it one last stretch. Nathan sat next to him, knees spread. 

“Is that why you’re puking your guts up like you’ve just found out you’re late and your baby daddy is your best friend’s boyfriend who swears he’s stopped with all the gambling but you met him at the dog track so you know better?”

Klaus smiled dreamily, patting Nathan on the shoulder. 

“But he promised me things would be different.”

They both laughed at their immeasurable wit. It was funny how at ease he felt with this new kid, as if they’d known each other all their lives. 

He fished around in his jumpsuit and pulled out a joint. 

“Something to help with the pain?”

Klaus instantly reached out to grab it, painted fingernails stopping just short. He licked his lips and looked nervously over his right shoulder, as if looking for something. 

“Yeah, why not?”

He took the joint in well-practiced hands and lit it from the lighter Nathan held out. He drew in a deep breath then closed his eyes, drawing in the harsh smoke with the same feeling on his face that Nathan felt when he finally hit the showers after a day of dirty community work. 

He took the joint from Klaus’ outstretched fingers and took a long drag. The way this guy smoked he’d have to be quick if he wanted to get any. 

“Oi, are you two gonna do some work or just sit there getting high?”

Kelly’s hands were on her hips, her dark lined eyes even darker at the sight of seeing the boys relaxing in the bushes.

“You told me to check on him! That’s what I’m doing!”

Klaus laughed, lying back in the bushes. It didn’t look very comfortable. Kelly threw her hands in the air and stomped back to work.

Nathan looked at Klaus. They both burst out laughing.

Klaus lounged on the picnic table, waiting for his siblings as the gloomy sky began to darken further. The plan was to meet back up at the community centre before working out what to do for the night. He must have drifted off because the next thing he knew, Diego was looming over him, shaking him awake.

“Hey, get up.” 

Klaus groaned. His back was killing him. 

The whole crew were there, still wearing their uniforms which were looking shabby, even though it had only been one day. Klaus had opted to stay in his jumpsuit rather than putting that foul reminder of Daddy-dearest back on.

“We need to find somewhere to stay tonight. Five reckons there’s an abandoned factory just a mile down the road, there won’t be power but. . .” Klaus cut Luther off with a wave of his goodbye hand.

“That won’t be necessary, my darling brothers and sisters, for I have a solution.”

A few moments later and Luther was hoisting Klaus through the bathroom window that he had cleverly left open earlier that afternoon. He insisted on going feet-first rather than head first to avoid the risk of ending up with his head down the toilet bowl.

“I don’t see why Five can’t just zap his way in there,” Diego complained, leaning against the building while turning one of his knives over in his fingers. 

“Because I just transported seven adults through both time and space less than twenty-four hours ago and I need to recharge. We all know what happened the last time I jumped when I wasn’t ready.”

“Oh here we go, the Apocalypse. I thought we were done with that.”

“Would you two just shut up!” Allison hissed. A day wandering the streets without her comforts was starting to show the cracks. 

Well, they hadn’t quite been wandering the streets. While Five and Ben had been looking for free accomodation options that weren’t already taken by the city’s numerous homeless people, the others had been working on a plan to control Vanya’s powers now that she didn’t have her medication. They had even been thoughtful enough to include Vanya in that plan, although only after Five had suggested it. They had taken the tube out to somewhere called Seven Oaks which was all parklands and forests. Considering they were all in one piece and speaking to each other, it must have gone well. 

Finally Klaus managed to shimmy his shoulders through the tight space, landing one foot on either side of the toilet seat with the grace of someone who had broken his way into many-a-place he wasn’t supposed to be.

He jumped off the toilet seat then skipped out of the dark bathroom through to the main corridor where the night lights were on. Klaus thanked the little girl in the sky for the fact that the centre left the low lights on at night.

He could see the distorted outlines of his siblings through the frosted glass by the time he got to the front door. He had already checked for an alarm system when he left that day, noting that while it was installed, the wires hanging out of the panel probably meant that it didn’t work. 

Klaus unbolted the door from the top and bottom before swinging it open.

“Welcome to the _Le Chatau des Reves_! Come in and I’ll show you around.”

Klaus led his siblings through the corridor, stopping in front of the vending machine.

“Ladies, through here you will find your amenities. Gentlemen, yours are just through here should you wish to have a shower - Diego I’m looking at you.” Diego clenched his jaw, only holding his tongue because of Luther’s heavy hand on his shoulder.

“We have the vending machine for all of your refreshments and I’m pretty sure there’s a bar back there that has a broken lock on the roller door. Questions?”

“Yeah, just one,” a voice echoed from behind them. The seven of them spun around. 

Standing in just his jocks, with his hands on his hips, was Nathan.

“What the fuck are you doing in my community centre?”

“ _Your_ community centre? Doesn’t it belong to, you know, the community?” Klaus stalled. He looked to Ben for advice. The disloyal bastard just shrugged. 

“Listen, we just need somewhere to stay,” Five said, stepping forward. 

Nathan crossed his arms, which did nothing to make him look tougher in his state of undress. Klaus noticed that he also had a few tattoos, although none like his division one that he got on his arm. He would have to get it replaced as soon as he could. He overheard Kelly talking while they were painting about someone she knew called Vince who was a tattoo artist, maybe he could do one on the cheap?

“Well back off, kiddo, this place is already taken!”

Five’s eyes flashed dangerously. 

“Who are you calling kiddo?”

“Five,” Luther warned in a low voice, turning towards Five. Klaus fiddled with the zip on on his jumpsuit, darting closer to Ben. Why did Nathan have to provoke his fifty-eight year old assassin brother?

“You should listen to Mamma Gorilla there.” 

Luther’s head snapped towards the scantily clad antagonist. Nathan took a visible step back. Even though Luther had his pre-serum body back, it was obviously still a touchy topic.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, everyone, let’s just calm down,” Klaus said, dancing out between Nathan and his family with arms outstretched. “He didn’t mean it-”

Luther scowled. 

“Come on now, how would he know it was such a taboo topic?” Klaus asked.

“Because you would have told him!” 

“I did not!”

“Told me what?” Nathan asked, suddenly interested.

“Nothing!” all the Umbrella siblings replied in strangely loud harmony. Nathan bit back a smirk. 

“Listen, this place is big enough for all of us. Please, can we just stay?”

Klaus dropped to his knees and clapped his hands together in a begging pose. 

“Fine,” Nathan grumbled. “But you can’t have mezzanine.”

Klaus jumped up and hugged him, then turned back to his family. 

“I’m starving. What’s there to eat around here?” Diego asked, rubbing his stomach. He looked even more like Grace’s little boy with his uniform on.

“There’s some shops up the road,” Nathan replied. “Or there’s the vending machine.”

“But I suppose that we would need money for that,” Allison sighed.

“That you would.”

“We have still have four dollars, I mean pounds, from what we exchanged out of our pockets today. We can go out to the supermarket and see what we can buy,” Luther said, although even he sounded doubtful that they would be buying much.

Nathan squinted at the line of siblings.

“Why are you guys dressed in school uniforms?” 

“We, err. . . .” Luther started. Five rolled his eyes.

“That’s not your business.”

“Fine, because I was going to offer a selection of the Community Centre’s finest clothing line, but in that case . . .”

Klaus’ eyes lit up.

“Wait, wait, wait . . . you know where we can get other clothes?”

Nathan grinned.

“Follow me.”

He led the group to a storeroom upstairs above what must have been the toilets. Klaus noted that it was much darker up there. He shuffled closer to Ben who instinctively took his hand. Good Ben. 

Nathan unlocked a door with a set of keys he definitely should not have had and swung it open. After a quick fumble around the side of the door, he turned on the light.

There was box after box overflowing with clothing. Ski gear, jeans, rollerblades. A black plus-size bra hung from one of the shelves.

“Help yourselves.”

Klaus was in heaven. Not the black and white kind, the real kind. He tried on boxes and boxes of tops and skirts and even a few dresses before Diego yelled at him to find some actual clothing. 

Most of his siblings had settled on clothes close to what they normally wore. Ben had found a hoodie and leather jacket and Vanya already looked more like herself with a men’s linen shirt and jumper. Luther found an old “Wertham Community Centre Running Club” t-shirt which actually fit him and paired it with some plain blue jeans. Allison twisted a knot in the front of an old blouse worn with a pencil skirt that showed her figure off. Five finally ditched his uniform for a pair of loose pants and a blue collared shirt. Diego of course found a tight black jumper and an even tighter black t-shirt, although for some reason paired it with white pants. When everyone had stared at their sibling’s choice, he tilted his chin defiantly and asked “What?”, to which they all went back to piecing together their own outfits. 

“C’mon Klaus, I’m starving,” Diego complained, waiting outside the storeroom. They had all finished taking their outfits to the changerooms and washing up ten minutes ago. Finally the threat of turning the light off and shutting him in their hurried Klaus into making a decision. He emerged wearing a pair of printed burgundy harem pants, a white mesh singlet and a wooly black cardigan that was five sizes too big. Nathan (who was now wearing a pair of jeans and his tartan lined black jacket) gave him a look up and down then up again.

“Right, we’re not going to stand out at all. C’mon, let’s go find some meals for fifty ‘p’.”

“Hey guys,” Vanya interrupted. She was staring up at a bulletin board with all sorts of coloured paper pinned haphazardly across it. “I think I have the solution to our money issues.”

The others gathered behind her. Five reached up and tore the flyer off the bulletin board.

“Five hundred pounds? Perfect. And it starts in an hour.”


	4. Chapter 4

“So how good is he at darts?” Nathan asked, cigarette hanging from his lips as he cupped his hand around to light it. Klaus watched him longingly until the other boy gave in and handed it to him before lighting another one. Klaus accepted the smoke with an excited titter. Nathan took a drag before continuing.

“Because this will be a big competition, for five hundred quid and all.”

Luther smirked. “Diego can hit any target. Any distance.”

“You sound pretty confident there, goril-la-griller-grilled sandwich. The pub has the best grilled sandwiches.”

Allison flashed Nathan a look. Klaus has seen that look before, he used to cop it all the time growing up. The good old _reign-it-in-before-I-reign-you-in-myself_. 

Klaus grins at Nathan who raises his eyebrows in relief. He might tease the big man, but Klaus is sure that he would run like a squealing piglet if Luther turned on him.

Ben is walking one step behind them. Klaus slows down, walking beside his closest brother. It’s been strange over the last day not having his Bentacles by his side. His brother has been his only constant through the last thirteen years of mayhem. He would be lying to say he didn’t miss him today when he was feeling sick, or hungover, or whatever that must have been. Definitely not withdrawals.

“How are you feeling?” Ben asks. His hands are dug deep into his pockets. Klaus links his arm through the loop his elbow makes. 

“Starving! I haven’t eaten since this morning at the station.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Ben doesn’t look up, but his silence says it all.

Of course Ben would know. How could Klaus think he wouldn’t have figured it out. Even though he and Ben hadn’t been that close last time they were this young, it was only a year from now that Ben died in the other timeline and followed Klaus _everywhere_ \- to every club, house party, bedroom and illegal warehouse rave. Into every alley way, toilet stall and gutter than he vomited or passed out in. In the ambulances. To the hospitals. To rehab.

Ben knew the signs better than Klaus did.

“Klaus, I know you’re not sober anymore.”

“But I am, remember, I summoned you in the theatre and everything.”

“That was in your old body. We are in our younger ones now.” When Klaus started to protest, Ben pulled him to a stop by their intertwined arms. He turned his hooded head to face his brother.

“Klaus, I’m alive. Now, I know Five hasn’t figured out exactly what’s going on with all the timeline shit, but it’s obvious that the only way that I could still be alive is if we reverted to our younger selves, and I happen to know for a fact that your younger self at this age was not sober.”

Klaus sighed. Stupid Ben, stupid Ben ruining everything. 

His voice softened, like the way it did when he would talk to Klaus after a nightmare. When Klaus wished for nothing more than for his brother to be able to reach out and _touch_ him.

“I’m so sorry. You’d finally done it and I was, still am, so proud of you.” 

_But_. There was always a _but_. Klaus didn’t want to hear what Ben had to say next.

Instead, he took a deep breath and plastered a cheesy grin on his face.

“Ben, _mein bruder_ , that makes me so happy to hear, I cannot tell you, but please, I’m fine, seriously. There’s nothing in this body but some nicotine, and maybe a bit of weed. I wasn’t into any of that other stuff until _way_ later, I promise. At this age last time ‘round I was just dabbling.”

“ _Klaus_ -” 

“I’ll take it easy, I swear. Body is a temple and all that shit that Diego’s always on about. I’ve got it all under control.”

Klaus looked straight ahead so he didn’t have to see Ben’s little crushed face. He dug his hand into Ben’s pocket and squeezed his brother’s hand.

“I promise Ben, it won’t be the same this time around.”

Their conversation was interrupted by the group’s arrival at the pub. 

Klaus had been to a lot of drinking establishments but none quite like this. He assumed pubs would just be like sports bars, which was not somewhere he frequented much if he were being honest. The pub was old, like really old, with an aged wooden bar and wooden trim around every door frame, window and fixture in the whole place. The carpet was a garish green with a repeating maroon diamond pattern. The whole place smelled like sour yeast. 

There were a few people milling around, some eating meals slathered in gravy at the tables on the other side of the bar that sat in the centre of the pub. A group of guys still dressed in work overalls were watching a soccer game on one of the televisions, draining pints of dark beer. 

The six boys gathered in the corner next to an arcade machine, hiding Five towards the back. Vanya and Allison had gone to the bar to sign Diego up for the competition.

Klaus clapped his hands together.

“Anyone want a drink?” 

“No,” Diego said just as Luther said “Yes.” They then entered a glaring contest that lasted until Vanya and Allison came back from the bar. One look at their crestfallen faces told Klaus things weren’t going to plan.

“Sorry guys, but we’ve missed the cut off. No more sign ups.”

“What?” Diego and Luther both exclaimed. Luther ran his hands through his blonde hair, which was a bit longer than he had been wearing it. Diego turned to the wall, pounding a fist into the bricks. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, take care of those magic hands there dart boy,” Nathan said. He already had a pint in his hand. Klaus didn’t even see him buy it. Clearly he had a lot to learn. Nathan tilted his chin and leaned his elbows back on the arcade game. “If I can get you in the competition, I get a fifty percent cut.”

“Five percent,” Five quickly countered.

“Twenty.”

“Ten.”

“Done.” Five held out his hand flashing his toothy grin at Nathan who took his hand and shook.

“Wait, ten percent of five hundred is a hundred pounds yeah?” 

Vanya bit her lip and looked up at Allison. 

“Not quite,” Five said, slapping him on the back. “Now which one of you is going to buy me a scotch?”

Fifteen minutes later they were squashed into the back room of the pub with around a hundred people, ranging from young guys taking their young girls out on a Wednesday night to old men serious about their darts. Nathan had talked to some guy he went to school with who was working behind the bar to get Diego signed up for the competition. On his return he slipped a pint into Klaus’ hand with a wink. Ben rolled his eyes. 

Simon was the first of the ASBO crew to turn up, choked in a shirt buttoned all the way to the top, smoothing his already plastered down hair against his bleach white forehead. He looked nervous as all hell surrounded by so many people. 

A guy came crashing through the crowd holding four pints in an impressive diamond formation. He shoved into Simon, causing him to spill his beer over Vanya. She jumped back with a gasp. 

“I . .I am so s-s-sorry,” he stuttered, pulling an actual handkerchief out of his pocket. He handed it to her. “It’s clean, I swear.”

Vanya smiled, taking the handkerchief with thanks. She dabbed at the wet spot on her chest while Simon kept apologising. 

“It’s OK, seriously,” Vanya reassured, resting her hand on his forearm. She held out her other hand. “I’m Vanya.”

“Simon.”

Klaus and Nathan exchanged looks. 

“Looks like it might actually be happening for young Barry tonight.”

“Hey, that’s my sister you’re talking about,” Klaus replied, crossing his arms over his chest in his best effort to look intimidating. He took another sip of his beer. It wasn’t his usual choice of drink but it was free and it wasn’t like he was going to be able to get his hands on any spirits tonight without cash. He just shut his eyes and swallowed. It wouldn’t be the first time. 

“Relax, Barry’s harmless. Might be a bit of a panty-sniffer, but I’ll admit, there wasn’t any actual evidence.”

Klaus looked up at Nathan.

“He better not be, or he’ll have the six of us to deal with.”

“I’ve seen you in action, you hit like a pussy.”

“You hit like a pussy.” Klaus took another large sip of his beer. Better to get it over and done with. God, how could people actually enjoy this stuff? “I’ll have you know I’m actually a highly trained fighter.”

“Pfft, and I’m a superhero.”

Klaus laughed. If only he knew.

“Anyways, I’d have to get in line. He’d be dealing with Allison first.”

Nathan looked over at Klaus’ taller sister who was watching the room. Luther returned from the bar handing her a glass of wine. 

“Yeah, she looks like she could rip a man’s balls off and shove them up his arse before he even knew his pants were off.”

Klaus hummed into his beer. 

“That she could. Anyways, our little Vanya might look cute, but she can take care of herself.”

Kelly arrived with Curtis and Alisha, drinks already in hand. 

“It’s so crowded in here,” Kelly said, yelling over the buzz of anticipation. She looked Klaus up and down, one eyebrow raised. He poked his tongue out at her.

“Who watches a dart competition anyways?” Alisha added, wrinkling her nose. She was wearing a leopard print boob tube dress over a bra. This girl spoke Klaus’ language. She purposely stood away from Curtis, using Kelly as a shield. Curtis was already two-thirds of the way through his imported beer.

“Trouble in paradise?” Klaus murmured in Nathan’s ear. He looked up, taking in the evidence. He raised an eyebrow, giving Klaus a nod. 

“So what’s going on with you two? Lover’s tiff?” he asked with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Alisha jutted her jaw out, arms crossed, staring him down. Curtis necked his drink.

“I’m going to the bar.” 

Nathan grinned, drumming his finger tips together with glee at the reaction. He pushed in next to Kelly to get all the goss. 

Klaus drained his beer and took the opportunity to find Ben. He was standing with Five leaning against a wall that was plastered with posters from the various events held in the back room. Klaus took a spot next to him.

“How are you?” he asked cheerfully, pressing his shoulder against his brother’s. Ben shrugged.

Ouch. 

Five cut across, oblivious to their conversation. 

“Here we go, it’s starting.”

The competition was held on a kind of raised platform built out of old multipurpose wooden boxes used for productions, arranged along one wall of the room like a stage. For a big crowd and a big prize it was a pretty low tech operation. The competition was simple enough: beat your opponent to advance to the next round. What Klaus didn’t expect was the scoring. You had to start on a score of one-hundred-and-sixty-four and then subtract numbers that you hit from your score to get exactly zero.

Klaus looked at Ben and Five who wore equally alarmed expressions. Vanya turned up at their side, Simon in tow. Her wide eyes told Klaus that she had also realised the problem.

“I didn’t know there would be so much math!” 

Klaus laughed out loud. Diego was good at a lot of things. Bending the flightpath of anything he threw. Breathing underwater. Punching people. 

Not math.

Five narrowed his eyes. 

“C’mon, let’s push to the front.”

By the time Diego’s first match up started, Five, Ben, Klaus, Vanya and Simon had all squeezed their way to the front of the crowd. Klaus pushed Five in front of him, knowing that he would be more useful in a game where maths was important.

Diego looked shell-shocked standing up on stage holding his three darts with the harsh white stage lighting shining on him. Klaus could see the sweat beading on his forehead.

“Diego!” Five yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. Diego’s wandering gaze locked on their familiar faces. “You have to get one-six-four exactly! Don’t go over!” 

Diego nodded. The announcer called him up to the line. 

Diego’s first shot was a bull’s eye. His second shot was also a bull’s eye. Half the crowd went wild while the older guys shook their heads. Five held his hand to his forehead in concentration. After a second he groaned.

“He should have done triple-twenty, triple-eighteen and a bull’s eye! Fuck!” 

Diego threw the third dart. Bull’s eye. The drunks went wild. 

“What’s happening, what does that mean?” Klaus asked, flapping his hands wildly.

“He only got one-fifty.”

“But he hit three bull’s eyes?” Klaus said. In his book, that was pretty impressive.

“That’s not the point of the game. A bull’s eye isn’t the highest score on the board,” Five groused.

“So what does that mean?” Klaus asked, more confused. It was starting to sound like they weren’t getting that money for meals after all.

“It means that he has to wait until he gets his next go and hope his opponent isn’t any good,” Ben replied. Klaus grinned generously.

“Oh, I get it now. Thanks Ben!” 

Ben acted as if he hadn’t heard Klaus. He tried to ignore the pang in his chest. 

While Diego’s opponent had their go (clearly drunk and obviously only competing to impress a group of his mates who were hollering from up the back), Five rushed to the side of the stage to grab his brother by the collar and drag him down to his height. Klaus watched as he furiously spat instructions in his ear before releasing him and returning to the group. 

Diego threw two fives and a four in his next go to win the round. 

Klaus picked up an abandoned clear looking drink that had been set down on a table next to him. He wasn’t sure if it was spiked. He supposed he could only be so lucky. 

He wandered back to the others. 

He could not have predicted what was going on back in the main bar. 

Allison was standing with her back to Luther, arms crossed over her chest while Luther desperately tried to get in her line of vision. All the while he was swatting away Curtis who was trying to get up in his face, obviously offended by something. Alisha was trying to pull him away by tugging on his sleeve. 

Nathan was hanging off the bar, doubled over laughing, tears streaming from his eyes. 

“What, pray tell, is happening here?” Klaus shouted, holding out his palms so that the _hello goodbye_ were visible. Everyone froze except for Nathan who staggered through the middle of the scene, falling onto Klaus. 

“And I thought my family had issues!” He took a heaving breath and wiped his eyes. “So some guy bumps Alisha, and Grilled Sandwich here decides to be chivalrous and checks if she’s ok. He puts his hand on her-” Nathan turned around to face Alisha “-which by the way, _you should know better than that_ -”

Alisha chewed her lip, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

“- then he’s all like-” Nathan burst into a fresh wave of laughter before getting himself under some sort of control “-he’s all like ‘I want to take you to the moon and touch you, gonna make you hot like the sun’-”

Tears were streaming down Nathan’s face. He hiccuped before going on.

“But the best bit, the best bit was when he let go and then was all ‘Allison, I didn’t mean it!’ - I mean _what the fuck is going on there?_ ”

Klaus’ fingers were pressed over his mouth, hiding a smirk. He flashed Luther a look, revelling in the fact that for once it wasn’t him fucking up.

“Want another drink?” Klaus asked Nathan with a laugh. 

“Sure, but I’m all outta cash, so unless you have any ideas?”

Nathan, it turned out, was the perfect fit to Klaus’ antics. 

Klaus leaned his elbows against the bar, waiting for his turn to get served. The bar tender was pouring beers from the tap right in front of him. Klaus flashed him a wink. The bar tender rolled his eyes and shook his head, over pouring a beer in the process.

“What are you drinking,” he drawled, leaning into a pasty skin-head wearing a white adidas jacket. The guy looked like he could have been Kelly’s brother. He continued to watch the soccer game on the television across the bar. Klaus stumbled into him, grabbing his arm. 

“Oh, wow, you have such nice muscles.” He petted the guy’s arm, batting his big eyelashes. 

That got the guy’s attention. Klaus actually thought he heard him growl as her turned around.

“Get off me you fucking little poof,” he said, pushing each word out between gritted teeth. The bar tender looked up from the beer he was pouring, watching the exchange. 

“Sorry,” Klaus said loudly, playing up his accent. “I meant no offence. Just where I’m from guys who, you know,” he said, gesturing vaguely in the guy’s direction, “would be signaling that they were interested in that kind of thing.”

One of adidas jacket’s mates wearing almost the exact same jacket in black leaned in from behind, looking Klaus up and down. People seemed to do that a lot here. Klaus took a small step back.He flicked a look over at Nathan down the other end of the bar. Nathan gave him a rapid nod, a noticeable bulge in his jacket.

“So sorry, have a good night,” Klaus said with a wave. He wriggled away from the bar as fast as his giraffe legs could take him. 

“Did you get it?” Klaus asked, following Nathan around the corner out of sight from the bar. Nathan opened his jacket to reveal a mostly full bottle of Vodka, the free pourer still wedged in the top.Klaus clapped his hands excitedly. 

They got halfway through it by the time that Diego won the dart competition. 

The walk back to the community centre was much warmer thanks to the buzz of the vodka in Klaus’ blood. He listened to Nathan natter on about some of his most interesting sexual exploits including something he called a ‘triple’, which Klaus wished he’d never heard of. 

As they approached the community centre, Diego gave each person their cut. He gave each sibling including Nathan a fifty pound note. Klaus held out his hand.

“Not for you, Klausy.” Diego said. Klaus snarled. 

“Why not?”

“Because, you can’t be trusted,” Luther added, mindful of Nathan who now unlocking the door with his keys.

“What? That’s not fair!” 

“What would you spend it on if I gave it to you?” Diego asked. 

“What would _you_ spend it on?” Klaus retorted, arms crossed. He knew he must have looked like a petulant child but he didn’t care. This was so unfair, so typical of his siblings. 

“Food. Clothing. Necessities.”

“So would I!”

Luther groaned, shaking his head. 

“Fine! Give my half to Nathan so at least he can spend it for me.”

“No way,” Diego cut in, glaring at Nathan who was holding the door open, waving people in like a fancy doorman. His siblings filed in. Klaus stayed outside.

“So, I’m going to brush my teeth,” Nathan announced, using his excuse to escape the awkward tension.

“Why do you treat me like this? Like a child?”

Luther turned around in the doorway.

“Because you behave like one!” 

“Argh!” Klaus kicked a metal rubbish bin and stormed past them, dodging a well dressed girl with an Alice band with a gaping hole in her stomach. He ignored Luther’s _proved my point_ behind him.

What was the point? They never fucking trusted him, they were never going to. He got sober, he actually did it, and he wasn’t going back to that this time. None of that hard shit. 

He didn’t remember the decision to go up to the mezzanine, but once he was up there, his intent became clear.

He just wanted some weed. 

His fingers brushed over a small bag in the pocket of Nathan’s jumpsuit. He pulled out a small bag with tiny white crystals that almost looked like glass beads.

_Put it back._

_Put it back._

“What if I can’t find weed?” Klaus said out loud. Old habits died hard as they say. He leaned over to put the bag back, then stood up again. “I’ll just hang onto it in case there’s no weed.”

_If you hang onto it, you’ll take it._

_You need to get clean._

“What for?” 

_For him._

“Dave,” Klaus said, saying his name as if the very word could soothe his battered soul. 

“Put it back.”

Klaus jumped and fell back onto Nathan’s mattress, dropping the bag of drugs on the floor. He held his hand over his chest. 

“Christ Ben, you scared me, which is saying something considering that you haunted me for the better part of thirteen years!”

Ben stood above him, looming like a spectre. He bent down and picked up the bag, replacing them in Nathan’s jumpsuit pocket. Klaus sighed.

“C’mon, let’s get out of here before he gets back.”

Ben led him out to the picnic table overlooking the water. Klaus pulled his cardigan tighter around him. He wasn’t in the mood for a lecture, he was not quite drunk and cold and his head was pounding (he would have to drink more water tomorrow), but if he put up with Ben chewing him out, then maybe he wouldn’t tell the others. As bad as Ben’s lectures were, One to Three’s were worse.

He sat next to Ben on the table. 

They sat in silence, listening to the sounds of far away London traffic and watching the orange glow of the city lights ripple on the black water. He’d always wondered what it would be like to live in another city. 

“I’m sorry,” Klaus blurted, filling the silence.

“What are you sorry for Klaus?” Ben asked, staring at his hands clasped between his knees. Klaus ran his hands through his hair. 

“I thought, I thought . . .” He let out a long breath, letting it whistle through his teeth. What did he think? Why was this so hard? Ben had been with him through the worst of it, he knew it all. It was like talking to himself. 

Maybe that was the problem.

“I was lying. I thought that things had only been bad for a little while but I’m starting to realise that things were bad for a long time. That I’ve been like this for a long time.” 

Klaus sucked in a sharp breath, pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth to stave off the prickling in his eyes. 

“It’s not fair.” 

Ben looked up.

“What’s not fair?” he asked in his calm even voice. Klaus laughed.

“All of it. I mean, Luther gets a second chance to be normal, Allison gets a second chance to keep her daughter, even Vanya gets another chance to not end the world and I just get dumped in the same shit.”

Klaus rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, sniffing. He took another deep breath. 

“Oh well, _cie la vie_ as they say. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be sober. Gotta live up to the other’s high expectations of their high brother,” he said with a desperate laugh. He was rambling now. 

“Klaus-” Ben started. He reached out towards Klaus’ knee. Klaus jumped off the table.

“It is freezing out here, I’m gonna go inside.”

“Wait,” Ben called out. 

Klaus spun around. Ben climbed off the table and moved in front of him. 

He threw his arms around his taller brother, pulling him in close. Klaus responded in kind, resting his chin on Ben’s shoulder. He breathed in the scent of Ben’s hair. God he missed this. 

When they broke apart, Klaus held Ben out at arms length, smiling.

“Thank you. I needed that.” He spun around, linking arms with Ben. “Now let’s get inside before we freeze to death!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *feels*


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So accidentally big chapter. The events in this chapter are a little nod to Season 2 Ep 2 Misfits, but I didn't re-write the whole thing because it was a beautiful episode the way it was. So, little nods. 
> 
> Things start to go badly in this chapter. I've updated the tags too. Thank you for reading!

If Simon arrived early for community service the next day, it had absolutely nothing to do with hoping to run into Vanya. He arrived at the door and saw in the reflection of the glass that his hair had shifted in the wind on the walk in. 

He hurried into the changerooms, looking in the mirror. It wasn’t too bad, nothing a bit of water and smoothing couldn’t fix. 

He heard Vanya’s voice coming into the changerooms. This wasn’t how he had planned to run into her. He was meant to run into her in the hallway, he had planned what he was going to say. He couldn’t run into her in the toilets like some sort of pervert.

He took a deep breath and turned invisible.

Tucked up against the wall next to the vanity basin, Simon watched as Vanya followed Five into the changerooms. She was holding a toothbrush that Simon recognised from the boxes of free kid’s brushes that they had to sort out for some event for the local health service. Five set his down on the sink next to her. 

“Urg, forgot the cup.”

A flash of blue light. 

A sharp _whoosh_.

Five was gone. 

Where did he go? 

Did he have powers from the storm like Simon? 

Vanya hadn’t even flinched, she just continued to squeeze toothpaste on the tiny brush.

A second later and another flash of blue and Five was back. With a cup.

What was going on? 

Simon slipped his phone out of his pocket. He flipped it up to activate the camera when it slipped from his fingers. 

The sound of the plastic clattering against the tiles was deafening. Simon winced, holding his breath.

“Wa wo wat?” Vanya mumbled, mouth full of toothpaste. 

“What was what?” Five replied, filling his cup with water. Simon let out the breath he’d been holding. Thank goodness. 

He had to tell the others. He knew there would be more people with powers from the storm out there. If he had it correct, it seemed like Five was able to jump through -

A flash of blue. 

Five was gone.

Another flash, much, much brighter.

Right in front of him. 

Five grabbed Simon around the neck, his fingers digging in with a strength that a thirteen year old shouldn’t have. Simon gasped as his grip tightened. 

“Show yourself!” Five growled. Simon slapped at Five’s arm. He couldn’t breathe. 

He concentrated on making himself visible. His body shook.

Pain jolted through his shoulder as he hit the tiles.

“Simon?” 

Five and Vanya were standing over him, Vanya still holding her toothbrush. Five reached down and lifted him by his shirt, pushing him into a sitting position against the lockers before crossing his arms. He crouched in the V of his legs, hand still threateningly close to his throat.

“Who sent you? Was it the Commission? Start talking.”

Simon had started talking very quickly. 

He told Five all about the storm, which strangely he didn’t seem to know about. He told him about their powers, about his invisibility, Kelly’s mind reading, Alisha’s effect on men. He seemed a bit concerned when he mentioned Curtis’ rewinding time power.

“So he can’t control it?”

Simon shrugged. “A little, we just got our powers. We’re still getting used to them.”

Five looked concerned about that news.

“What about Nathan?” Vanya asked calmly. Simon could tell she was trying to compensate for Five’s intensity.

“He doesn’t have one.” 

Five scoffed. “Sounds about right.”

Vanya looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Simon had noticed that the siblings weren’t too keen on their eccentric brother. If he was anything like Nathan, he wasn’t surprised. 

“You said that the powers were new, maybe he just hasn’t discovered his yet.”

At her comment, Five looked away, deep in thought. 

“Is Nathan from around here? Do his parents live here?”

“Yeah, his parents don’t live together, but his mum lives just around the corner with her boyfriend. He’s a werewolf, or a weredog is probably more accurate-”

“Right, show us where.” Five stood up, fixing his collar. He was wearing the shirt from yesterday under a v-neck argyle jumper.

Simon’s eyes widened. 

“I have community service, I can’t just not show up, I’ll get in trouble.” 

Five snapped.

“This is important. The future of the world could depend on it.”

“Five, what’s going on?” Vanya asked. Five didn’t wait for Simon to get to his feet before setting off. He kept talking as he wove through the lockers.

“I’m going to find out why we were dumped here.”

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

Community service had gotten even better. 

Their apathetic probation worker had informed them that they would be hosting the elderly for a morning dance again. The others seemed to have done this before, and what’s more is that they all looked at Nathan who had turned beet red and folded his arms defensively. 

As soon as Klaus had found out they didn’t have to wear the jumpsuits, he rushed upstairs to change. He just made it back down in time, almost tripping on the long tropical printed green skirt he’d spotted the night before. He rushed back to stand next to Nathan, who looked a bit confused but gave an approving nod. The others all swapped confused looks.

The probation worker did not look as impressed. Whatever, Klaus wasn’t out to please him. 

“Where’s the creepy one?” the probation worker asked, scanning the five of them lined up. They all shrugged, looking around as if they hadn’t noticed Simon was missing. Klaus had seen him leave that morning with Five and Vanya as if they were on some kind of mission. The traitors had left him to deal with the wrath of the Top Three, although at least Ben had stayed. He still felt weird about how things were between them, but when they had laid down to sleep Ben pulled his gym mat over to beside Klaus, which had to be a good sign. They just had to work out a new dynamic now that Ben was alive again, that was all. 

Diego hadn’t been impressed to find that Klaus had been drinking the night before, but the glory of his win the night before must have still had some glow because he didn’t yell at him nearly as much as usual.

While Kelly struggled to start up a conversation with the old folks sitting at the small tables scattered around the room, Klaus was made for it. Soon he was reminiscing about Vietnam with a table of World War Two vets whose dementia had set in enough for them not to realise that Klaus was too young to have possibly fought in the war. He then danced with some groovy ladies who knew how to move, loving the way his new skirt felt as he swished it around.

As Klaus swished past a table with a short hunched over man in a fabulous Hawaiian shirt, he heard him grumble to himself “Wouldn’t let me wear a skirt.” A few minutes later, Klaus was knelt before the man helping him into an elastic waisted gold skirt much to the man’s pleasure and the displeasure of the nursing home worker who stood in the corner glaring at him. Klaus blew her a kiss and sat to talk with the man about everyone’s outfits.

He was having a pleasant time except for one part. Old people had a lot of ghosts. The good thing was that most of the ghosts were partners who had died natural deaths, but they still yelled at him to pass on messages to the living. Where he could, Klaus would subtly mention something the ghosts said in the conversation, he told the lady that he was dancing with that she was a wonderful dancer, passing on a message from her sweet looking husband. He ignored his comment about getting his hands off his missus though. 

It was when he told one of the veterans that his mates must have really appreciated his dirty jokes cheering up the troops in the trenches at the insistence of a nineteen year old with half his head missing that it started to get a bit much. He had to abruptly excuse himself when the image of Dave bleeding out under him flashed before his eyes. He ran to the bathroom, washing his hands thoroughly before his stomach betrayed him and he ran into the toilet. He got there just in time. 

“You alright man?”

Klaus wiped his mouth, not needing to turn around to figure out who followed him in.

“Yeah, this hangover’s a bitch.”

Nathan scoffed. “Would have thought you’d be made of sterner stuff, we barely scratched the surface last night.”

“It was probably that awful shit you call beer.”

Klaus stood up, stomach now somewhat settled. There was a sweet looking ghost with a walking frame standing next to Nathan. He’d noticed her before, but she was younger. She was very pretty.

“So, how come last night you didn’t tell me about the time you screwed an eighty-two year old?” 

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

Simon walked through the suburban streets next to Vanya, Five tailing them muttering to himself. The wind had picked up, chilling him through his jacket. Vanya wrapped her arms around her middle to keep warm.

“So, did Five get his powers in the storm too?”

Vanya cocked her head to the side then shook her head.

“Oh, no, no, we’ve always had our powers. Well, yeah, kinda.” When Simon looked confused she continued. “I only found out about my powers very recently.”

“What can you do?”

Vanya’s laugh was unsettling. 

“Err, I don’t really know yet. It’s . . . it’s something to do with sound, and sound waves. I can’t really control it.”

Noticing that Vanya was starting to pick at her sleeve, Simon changed the topic.

“What about the others? What can they do?” 

“Ah, well, Luther, his power is super strength.” Simon noticed the confidence that returned to her voice. “He was called Number One.”

“Number One?”

“Our dad gave us numbers instead of names. Two is Diego. You saw his skill last night. He can bend the trajectory of any object he throws. ”

“So, last night, that was cheating?” Simon asked, alarmed. Vanya giggled. 

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“I know. Allison, Number Three, can alter reality, can make people do or think things.”

Simon made an impressed noise. 

“Who’s Number Four?”

“That’s Klaus. He can talk to the dead, although apparently he can also make them corporeal, that’s what the others said.” 

Simon’s stomach dropped. 

“So, what do you mean talk to the dead? Like ghosts?”

“Yeah, I think so. He doesn’t really talk about it much. He can only do it when he’s sober anyways-”

Simon didn’t hear the rest of what Vanya said. Having someone who could talk to ghosts around the community centre was a very dangerous thing, especially when they had killed and hidden the bodies of two of their probation workers.

“Simon, are you OK?”

“Yeah, yep, fine. So I guess Ben is Number Six?”

“Yeah, and his power is to bring monsters from another dimension, but he doesn’t like to talk about it.”

“Fine, no worries,” Simon said awkwardly. He forced a smile on his face. 

“Are you sure you’re OK? Five was pretty rough with you back there . . .”

“Yep, I’m fine.” He looked up to see that they were at Nathan’s house. “We’re here.” 

Five snapped out of his mutterings and pushed forward.

“Let me do the talking.”

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

Klaus was pushing a stack of chairs across the hall, wincing at the horrific squealing sound the legs made against the parquetry floor. 

“For fuck’s sake Klaus,” Kelly complained. Klaus threw his hands up and left the chairs in the middle of the hall.

 _You can’t leave them there!_ a thickset dark man yelled at him from over near the door.

“You fucking move them then!” Klaus shouted back. The man bared his teeth. Klaus didn’t like the way that his eyes had turned white. Or how the blood dripped from the caved in section of his head. 

_You can’t speak like that! Show some respect!_

“Urg, you sound exactly like Luther,” Klaus said, although still dodging him and walking off in the other direction with skittish steps. 

Kelly and Alisha watched him from where they were emptying the rubbish bins. 

“Who are you talking to?” Alisha asked, tying a knot in her bag. Klaus waved her away with his _goodbye_ hand, fluttering over to where Curtis was stacking the trestle tables to help there instead. On that side of the room he only had to deal with a kind looking lady with straight brown hair and a fringe that filtered into her sad eyes. She wore a lanyard just like the probation worker. If he squinted, he almost couldn’t see the blood and brain matter dripping from the back of her head. Sobriety was definitely not working for him. He would have to tell Ben, he tried. Or maybe he just wouldn’t tell Ben.

Klaus lay on the picnic table head to toe with Nathan, smoking a joint while waiting for his siblings. The girl with the Alice band had come back again, but was fading away with each drag. 

“So, I know a girl who knows a guy who can get us into a party tonight at an old warehouse. You in?” he asked, sitting up slightly to pass the joint back to Klaus. 

“Is God a little girl on a bike?” 

Nathan propped himself up on an elbow and gave him a weird look.

“Err, that means I’m in. Definitely. Just don’t mention anything to any of the others.”

He passed the sad-looking joint back to Nathan. He hoped that he had some more stashed in that jumpsuit.

“Yeah, what’s that all about. Can’t believe that they wouldn’t give you your money last night. Twats.”

Klaus pillowed his hands behind his head. 

“They aren’t that bad, I mean, given what it was like growing up this is a massive improvement.”

“I’d hate to see what it was like before then. What’s the deal with you guys, anyways?”

“What do you mean?” Klaus asked, giving himself more room to move. Five had been insistent on not telling anyone who they were until they had some more things figured out. He’d looked pointedly at Klaus when giving those instructions. Klaus wasn’t ready to prove him right just yet.

“I mean, we look like we could be twins, but then you guys look like your mum was the village bicycle.”

“Watch what you say about my mom there,” Klaus warned. “We’re all adopted. We’re exactly the same age too.”

“Even that little one? With the crazy eyes?”

Klaus laughed. “Yeah, he’s like an old man or something.” 

“Why are they such pricks to you?” Nathan asked. 

“I kinda deserve it. I’m a bit of a selfish prick myself. I dunno, we’re a pretty fucked up family that have been through some pretty fucked up shit. It’s hard to explain.”

The joint hadn’t been passed back in a while. He sat up in a half sit up to see Nathan setting out his crumpled zip lock bag on his stomach while he rolled another one. Klaus clapped his hands together excitedly and lay back down.

“How about your family?” Klaus asked. “How come you’re living here?”

“My mum chose her were-dog boyfriend over me and kicked me out, and my dad’s a twat.”

“Ah, Daddy-issues. We could write a book together. Vanya tried it, maybe it could be cathartic?” 

Nathan sighed.

“It’s not that bad. I still see my mum every now and then. She doesn’t know I’m living here though, thinks I got a place with some mates.”

“Why haven’t you told her?” Klaus sat up on his elbows. Nathan shrugged, licking along the joint to seal it. 

“Don’t want her to worry.”

Klaus nodded and accepted the joint back from Nathan. He could understand that. 

Klaus turned around to see Luther, Diego, Allison and Ben approaching carrying shopping bags. Of course, Luther was carrying the most, Diego carrying almost as many and struggling under the weight. Klaus quickly passed the joint back to Nathan, brushing his hands against the Hypercolour hoodie he was now wearing as if it would get rid of the smell. He sat up so quickly his head spun. 

Luther dumped a bag full of milk in Klaus’ lap. 

“Make yourself useful.”

“Hi Klaus, how was your day? I’ve missed you,” Klaus said, doing a poor imitation of Luther’s deep voice. He gave Ben a smile, which widened when Ben returned it, then rolled his eyes at Luther. 

“Jesus Klaus, have you been out here smoking all day?” 

Klaus stuck his tongue out at Diego.

“No, I’ll have you know that I’ve been helping our vulnerable senior citizens today.”

“Probably been stealing their meds,” Luther sniped. Klaus’s smile slid from his face. He turned away from Nathan, hiding the blush rising up his face.

“That’s not fair.”

Everyone froze. 

Ben. While he was alive, Ben was the quiet one, the peace maker. Of course, when he was a ghost, he had no shortage of insults for the Top Three when Klaus was the only one that could hear him. 

They could definitely hear him now. 

Luther looked suitably chastised before he turned back to walk to the community centre. 

“Irish boy, door.”

Nathan grumbled something that sounded a lot like _I’ll give you a door you fucking gorilla_ before jamming the joint in his mouth and pulling the keys out of his pocket.

Klaus threaded his arm through Ben’s and skipped him into the building despite Ben refusing to skip along with him. 

Five and Vanya returned just before dinner time. Klaus and Ben were making toasties. 

“Where have you been?” Allison asked, pulling plates out of the high cupboard in the kitchenette. 

Five tipped his head towards Nathan who was sitting in one of the wheelchairs throwing cheese snacks in the air and catching them in his mouth.

“Oi, you, go get us some beers.”

“Get ‘em yourself,” Nathan retorted, kicking out against the table to propel himself backwards in the chair while chewing on a cheese toastie. A knife landed with a twang into the vinyl of the wheelchair between Nathan’s legs. Nathan jumped back, tipping the chair over and falling onto the lino with a shout.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you mentally deficient? You could have sliced my balls off! ” Nathan shouted, furiously getting to his feet. 

“Beers.” Diego repeated, waving him off with a flick of his fingers. Nathan scowled, righting the wheelchair and pulling out the knife before sitting back in the chair and wheeling himself away.

“Do you have to be such a jerk Diego?” Klaus asked, pulling out another knife from the drawer to slice a tomato now that his was contaminated. Diego shrugged. 

“It works though. Only way to get through your thick skull.”

Klaus put his hand to his chest in mock (or maybe it was real) indignation.

“Enough! We don’t have long before he comes back.” Five stood up at the head of the table. “Today we went to Nathan’s mum’s house.”

“What?” Klaus cried out, abandoning the sandwich press entirely to lean over the servery. “Why?”

“To find out a few answers and leave with a few more questions. Long story short, on October 1st, 1989, she was backpacking through Germany with the man who Nathan thinks is his dad, when she gave birth to not one but two babies.”

“Twins?” Allison asked.

Twins? He had a brother, not like the others. An actual _blood_ brother. 

“So why didn’t Hargreeves take the both of them?” Allison asked. 

Vanya took over the story. 

“Because at first it was thought that only one survived. The nurses had reported that Nathan was still-born, so Dad just took Klaus. Then Nathan’s mum said that the nurses came in the next day apologising in German for some sort of mix up. Nathan was still alive. They took him home and raised him in Ireland before moving to London.”

Klaus felt like all the blood had rushed from his veins. He hung onto the bench with a white knuckled grip. Ben wrapped an arm around Klaus, giving him a squeeze. 

“Klaus, are you OK?” Allison asked kindly. Klaus nodded, biting his lip. He focused on the graffiti tag etched into the bench top in front of him. 

“So, this raises the question - why are we here?”

Klaus tuned out after that. It was a mistake, just a mistake that split him from his brother, not that he had any shortage of brothers now, but with Nathan it was different. He understood him in a way the others didn’t. Or it could have been a mistake that meant that Nathan was shipped off to the Umbrella Academy and he was left behind to have a normal life here. Klaus felt guilty for the pang of jealousy that he felt when he thought of what he had missed. 

He wriggled out of Ben’s grip and left the kitchen.

“Klaus, are you OK?” Vanya asked, placing a gentle hand on his forearm.

“Yeah, I just, I’m going to the toilet,” he said, rubbing his hand through his hair. 

“Do you want me to make you a toastie? You haven’t eaten yet?” Vanya said. Klaus shook his head.

“I’m not hungry.” He gave Vanya a tight smile and turned to skitter off to the bathroom.

“Klaus,” Five called out. Klaus stopped and turned around. “You can’t tell him. Not yet.”

Klaus nodded. Afterall, he was used to keeping secrets.

He ran into Nathan in the corridor who was using the wheelchair like a beer trolley. 

“Everything alright mate? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” 

Klaus let out something between a chuckle and a scoff. 

“Yeah, just family stuff.”

“You, my friend, look like you need a drink. Still on for tonight.”

Klaus nodded, picking up a beer from the wheelchair seat. 

“See you after lights out.”

Klaus waited until he could hear Luther snoring before he crept out of his bed. Given tonight’s events the others had given him some space, all except Ben who had watched him like a hawk. The siblings had decided to take over the meeting rooms up the back as their sleeping quarters. Luther took what looked like a counsellor’s office with Allison, which was super weird but whatever. Apparently Allison had the couch and he was on the floor but quite frankly Klaus just didn’t want to know. Diego holed up on his own in the probation worker’s office. Five and Vanya slept in the hallway on the couches. Klaus couldn’t stand the ghosts that would not shut up in there, so Ben suggested that they take the gym storeroom. There was a comfy crash mat that Klaus knew the others would be super jealous of if they knew it was there. 

Once he heard Ben lightly snoring he tiptoed out of the storeroom to collect the stash of clothes that he’d left in one of the lockers. 

Nathan was already in there, pulling on a black singlet. 

“C’mon, this girl can only get us in before eleven.”

“Just hold your horses amigo, I’ll be done in a jiffy.”

Klaus quickly got dressed and pulled out his pencil to touch up his eyes. He had thought earlier in the afternoon about doing his nails but after the night’s revelations he just sat on the picnic table and drank his beer.

Nathan tucked the vodka bottle securely into his jacket. 

“I’ll meet you out front.”

“OK.”

After five more minutes, Klaus was ready.

He turned around and slammed straight into Ben.

“Christ on a cracker Ben! You can’t just go scaring people like that!”

Ben’s brow is furrowed in his _what are you doing Klaus_ glare. Klaus looked away. If he couldn’t see the glare, he couldn’t feel guilty. It was becoming clear to Klaus that ghost or no ghost, Ben was still taking his role of dogging his steps and keeping him out of trouble very seriously. 

“Klaus, you don’t have to go to that party. You know what will happen.”

“Benji, that’s the old me. That’s all behind me now.”

“Klaus-”

“I’ll be fine! A little music, a little dancing . . .”

“Klaus-”

“Just let me relax, it’s been a shit night.”

Ben knew when he was fighting a losing battle. 

“Just wait and let me get a jacket.”

After explaining to Nathan that Ben was now also coming, the three of them walked to the shipping docks where the party was. Ben was wearing his newly acquired leather jacket, hood up over his head. Klaus had changed into a pair of so-tight-they’re-spray-on black jeans ripped in more places than not after Nathan had informed him that he would not survive the walk across the estate if he headed out in that leather skirt he had chosen first. Nathan let him wear the sheer fluro orange top (the colour began to grow on him) provided he left the oversized acid wash jacket on until they were inside the party. Klaus couldn’t argue with that, London was fucking cold. 

The shed was set in the middle of rows of shipping containers, bright lights escaping through the small opening of the door. Klaus could feel the bass beating through the ground as they approached. His skin tingled in anticipation. The last time he had been to a club was when he trailed after Luther, and that didn’t end well. After a quick conversation with the bouncer, they went straight in. The wall of pulsing music washed over Klaus the moment they walked through the door. 

Nathan left Klaus with Ben to quickly say hi to the girl who had gotten them in, some chick he’d met at a bar the week before. Apparently her manager had hit Nathan in the face, and she gave him her number.

It took Klaus all of ten minutes to get his hands on a bag of molly. It took another minute for Ben to find him with it.

“Klaus, don’t make me take them off you. I can do that now.”

Klaus clenched the bag in his hello hand and bared his teeth. 

“Just leave me be Ben.”

“No listen, I’ve had to follow you around for thirteen years watching you put all sorts of shit into your body, passing out where you weren’t safe, overdosing in alleyways and doing all that stupid shit. I am not going to spend another thirteen years watching you do it again. Not now that I can do this.”

Ben grabbed Klaus’ wrist and used his other hand to try and pry his fingers open. 

“Geddof me!” Klaus cried out, trying to pull his arm out of Ben’s grip. It was like he was using the eldritch tentacles to help him. Ben pressed his thumb into the gap between the bones of Klaus’ wrist, causing him to cry out in pain. Ben took his opportunity and pulled the baggie free, stuffing it quickly into his jacket pocket. 

“It’s getting flushed.”

Klaus howled like a child having a tantrum. 

“Ben, please, I can’t . . .”

“You can. And if I see you putting anything else in your mouth or any other orifice tonight I will send The Horror in after it to pull it back out. Clear?”

Klaus pouted. He had a point. Of course, he had a point. He was Ben, his moral compass, the one with the smart ideas and good decisions. 

“Fine, but I’m still getting drunk!” he declared, skipping off to the bar. 

By the time Nathan returned, Klaus had already finished off four large plastic cups of undisclosed liquid that were handed to him over the bar as well as a hip flask of some mixture he’d downed after he found left on the bench in the toilets. He had been secretly hoping to find a dropped pill or something but it seemed people weren’t as careless in London. Nathan made improvements to the bar’s cocktails by slipping a bit of their vodka into them while Ben wasn’t watching. He leaned against the wall, arms folded and surveying the room like some Diego wannabe.

“Ben, c’mon, have some fun,” Klaus teased, holding his wrists and waving his arms around like an octopus. Ben glared at him.

“Why, so you can sneak off and get high?” he shouted back over the music.

“You don’t need to do this anymore,” Klaus said, waving his drink to make his point. "I'm a big boy."

"Sure you are, until you wake up in gutter and can't remember your own name," Ben snaps back. 

"At least I'm out there living my life," Klaus shouts, aware that he is talking more loudly than he needs to but unable to stop. "It's your first night out alive and look what you're doing, still acting like a ghost following me around!"

Ben's eyes flashed dangerously. 

"This is what you call living your life? Klaus, you are wasting it. You're an addict Klaus, you always were. All those times in therapy where I had to sit there and listen to you lie, making it sound like you only lost control at the end there. You have never been in control, not once in your whole life!" 

Ben looked away, hands on hips. Klaus sipped his drink. 

"Well at least you aren't stuck here having to watch me. You have a choice now."

Ben's head snapped up. Klaus had rarely seen Ben angry. Pissed off, sure. Disappointed, all the time. But angry? Ben had a good reason to keep his temper under control, with the whole tentacle monster thing taking over and all, but it seemed tonight he was making an exception.

"Is that what you think? You think I followed you around for thirteen years because I didn't have a choice? You think I'm here tonight because I didn't have a choice?" Ben pushed into Klaus, knocking him with his shoulder. He leaned into his brother's ear.

"I always had a choice. Now I can see I just made the wrong one."

Klaus was left staring at the wall while his brother left. There was an awful feeling in his stomach that he didn’t like. 

Nathan looped his arm around Klaus' shoulders, knocking heads affectionately. 

"C'mon, let's get another drink."

The night stretched into a blur of clear plastic cups and strobe lights and sweaty bodies that pushed against Klaus' while he danced next to Nathan. With the accelerated potency of their drinks he was a lot drunker than he usually was by the time Nathan offered him a pill. He thought of Dave - Dave who might not even know him in this timeline. He thought of Ben who was already angrier than Klaus had ever seen him.

He swallowed it down, noticing that he had more in the bag before he tucked it back in his pocket. He hoped Nathan would be sharing.

The pill had barely kicked in when someone pushed up against him, leering over his shoulder. He could feel the scratch of stubble on his neck. The sensation made his skin crawl. Feebly, he tried to move away from the guy but a firm hand clamped down on his hip, toying with the waist band of his jeans. 

Before he wouldn't have cared but now . . .

Dave. 

He pushed against the guy more firmly but he was too strong. The guy leaned in closer, boxing Klaus in between his arms while he bounced in time with the music, acting almost as if he was dancing. The acidic stench of his aftershave made Klaus’s stomach clench. As soon as he tried to pull away, a cold hand slipped under Klaus’ flimsy top.

"Hey! Get your fucking hands off him you creep!"

Klaus stumbled as he was roughly pulled away. Familiar hands caught him. 

"You OK?" Nathan asked. Klaus shook his head and held his hand over his mouth. Nathan thankfully got the message. He grabbed Klaus from behind by the shoulders and steered him through the crowd. 

Next thing Klaus knew he was throwing up bright red liquid into a toilet bowl. Nathan held his dog tags back while leaning against the wall of the cubicle, tapping his foot against the tiles. 

"Better?" Nathan asked, helping Klaus stand up once he was done. He clicked his tongue. "What are you looking at?" he dared a guy who was watching them through the mirror. 

"Your boyfriend finished in there?" the guy taunted back. 

"He's my brother, you sick bastard."

Back out on the dancefloor Klaus valiantly tried to keep going but Nathan dragged him towards the door. 

"C'mon, let's call it a night."

“Nah, I’m good. If I can just have another one of those, I’ll be right as rain.” He pointed to Nathan’s pocket.

“I think you’ve had enough mate. It’s a long walk back to the community centre and I’m not carrying you.”

Klaus let himself be dragged out into the cold night air. He instantly felt much better. The area outside the shed was much quieter than when they'd arrived. Klaus was thankful. The ghosts on the way in had been horrific. He added shipping yard to his list of places to avoid, right behind mausoleums, hospitals and nursing homes. 

"Just wait here, just gonna grab some waters then I'll be back," Nathan said, leaning Klaus against a shipping container. He stumbled towards the bright lights of a kebab van that had pulled up to feed the departing revellers. 

Klaus rested his cheek on the cold iron of the shipping container and let his eyes slide closed. He knew that the alcohol would wear off too soon and the ghosts would be back but for now he could enjoy some time without the screaming and yelling and crying and moaning. A yapping sound like a pomeranian barking at a postman disturbed his peace. 

"Oi!" Klaus opened his eyes to see a vaguely familiar man with a hunched hair approaching him. He was wearing a matching black tracksuit. What was with these people and sportswear? He walked with a swagger that would have made walking anywhere with any kind of speed nearly impossible. 

He stopped inches from Klaus’ face. 

"You never paid for that gear."

Klaus was aware that they were watching him while his brain ticked over. This must have been the guy he got the pills off earlier. He's intended to ask Ben for the money, because even though Ben would have hated it, he wouldn't have let Klaus get into trouble. That was before everything happened. 

"You aren't leaving until I get my sixty quid." 

Klaus swayed on the spot, holding the shipping container with one hand while he waved the other in the dealer’s face.

"You said thirty."

"You said you'd be back in five minutes with my money. It's been three hours."

Klaus held up his tattooed hands placatingly.

"Look, I haven't got it right now, but if you calm down, maybe we can work something out," Klaus said, slurring the words together. 

The back of Klaus’ head smacked into the shipping container with a echoing clang. Hands were suddenly all over him, roughly pushing and prodding. They pushed into his jeans digging around painfully. 

He’s been in this situation before but it didn’t make it any easier. 

He didn’t want this, he didn’t want it. 

Oh he wished he’d never taken those pills. 

The hands pulled out of his jeans and started tugging at his jacket. Klaus grappled at it, holding it close to his body. 

Something gripped the side of his head like a watermelon and slammed it into the metal. Klaus managed to stay upright long enough to take one step back before crumpling. 

They got his jacket off easily as he lay helpless on the ground. He lifted his head but let go as the pain stabbed up his neck. He could barely make out the fuzz of light of the kebab van in the distance. _Don’t panic Klaus, just breathe._

“You fuckin' cunt, you haven't got a fuckin’ p on ya!”

He jumped when something was thrown on top of him. His hand reached out to feel the denim of his jacket. 

He wasn’t going to . . . he’d been searching his pockets. 

“Hey! What are you doing?” 

Klaus curled in on himself. He had to try to get up. For Nathan. 

“You bastard! Leave him alone!”

Klaus rolled onto all fours. He had to get up. 

_You stop, you die soldier._

He propped himself up on his elbows and pulled himself forwards, dog tags dragging in the dirt. He thought of Vietnam, pulling himself through the mud on his belly while the ground shook from the shelling. 

“He owes me money.”

Klaus looked up, but his vision was too blurry to make out much more than the halo-ed lights in the distance. 

“How much?”

"Eighty quid."

_Eighty!_

Klaus managed to draw his knees under his chest and pushed himself into an almost sitting position by leaning against the container. 

"He said sixty before," Klaus drawled. He wasn't even sure if he said actual words. He could just make out Nathan's hazy outline backlit by the glowing lights of the kebab van. 

Klaus felt the ground shake then the night sky light up brightly as a loud explosion rang through his ears. A wave of heat warmed his chilled skin. 

He could just see Nathan lunge forward at the distraction, dragging the dealer to the ground in a messy tackle.

"Klaus! Get up! Go!"

Klaus let the adrenaline take control. He pushed himself against the shipping container, finding his feet. He heard a smack then Nathan's voice cry out. 

"You fucking prick!"

His brother was in trouble. 

Klaus staggered forward and forced his eyes to focus, rubbing at them with the heel of his hand. 

The dealer was on top of Nathan, trying to pin him down. Nathan writhed like a cut snake, all wrists and knees and kicking feet. 

One good hit to the right spot is all it took to knock a guy out, no matter the size. As it turned out, Klaus knew exactly the spot. He swung his leg back and landed a kick square under the dealer's jaw. He dropped to the side so fast he looked to have been knocked out cold before he hit the ground. Nathan wriggled out from under him, limbs moving frantically until he was vertical enough to start running. He grabbed Klaus' arm and pulled. 

"Let's go!" 

Klaus pulled back against him to lean down and grab his jacket, allowing Nathan to tug him along as they ran from the scene, the flaming car burning brightly behind them. 

Once they had left the docks they only managed to run for a few minutes before Klaus was doubled over vomiting in a bed of neat roses in someone's front yard. 

"I have never met someone who vomits as much as you. I once heard about this guy who vomited so much his stomach actually turned inside out. He died, obviously."

Klaus coughed, spitting out the last of it. 

"Are you OK mate?"

Klaus nodded, instantly regretting the head movement.

"Yeah, are you OK?" 

"Yeah, although it feels like my eyeball is going to fall out," he said, probing his eye socket with his fingers. Klaus couldn’t see much with his shot vision in the dark, but he’d heard the hit. That was going to leave a mark.

"Five has a spare one if you need."

"An eyeball?” Nathan sighed and shook his head. “'Course he does, the little creep."

Klaus chuckled. 

The two boys continued to walk back to the community centre, sipping on their cold bottles of water that Nathan had miraculously hung on to. 

"Sorry." The words stuck in Klaus’ dry mouth.

"For what?"

"For tonight.” He quickly added; “You never got to hook up with your girl." 

"Nah, don't worry. She went off with some other guy anyways."

They turned to walk along the river. It was so quiet that Klaus could hear the water lap against the sides of the concreted bank. 

"What happened before with your brother?"

Klaus' heart sunk. He rubbed his eyes that were stinging in the night air. 

"We just, he . . . we used to be close. Like really close. He used to follow me around everywhere. He was like my moody guardian angel. He’d always try his best to keep me out of trouble, like that was even going to be a possibility. Then . . . .everything changed. He doesn’t have to follow me around anymore. He can live his own life."

"Maybe he wants to follow you around?"

Klaus shook his head, smiling sadly.

“Why would anyone want to do that? Besides, I don’t think he even wants to speak to me ever again.”

Klaus touched the side of his face. The tight feeling of his skin under his fingertips told him that it must have already started to swell. He touched it again, focusing on the pain that was easier to handle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BEN!?! *cryingface*


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here is Chapter 6. Enjoy!

Diego stomped up the stairs. Luther better not have made up this elaborate ploy to get him out of the kitchen to eat his yoghurt. Just because he didn’t think of buying yoghurt at the supermarket, didn’t mean he needed to act like a toddler. The look on his face when they sat down to breakfast and he saw the tub that Diego paid for with his own cut of the money - it was as if he’d gone to the moon without asking him to come with.

Right as Diego had peeled the little foil lid off the top of his container, Luther had come storming into the kitchen declaring Klaus as missing. It seemed like Luther being Luther by doing his normal overreacting until they confronted Ben who was still lying in bed, pale faced and eyes rimmed red. When they asked him where Klaus was, he just rolled over to hide under his sleeping bag.

Together, the two brothers checked Nathan’s mezzanine and the change rooms and the main hall, even the picnic tables. That left the rooftop and the upstairs storerooms. Diego took the rooftop. 

Diego thought about his tub of yoghurt, sitting on the table downstairs. He should have hidden it back in the fridge behind the Sauerkraut jar where he’d put it last night. He and Allison had been too busy discussing Five’s revelation the from night before. 

Klaus storming off at dinner hadn’t been the end of the conversation. According to Five, they weren’t the only super powered individuals in town, although they were definitely the most powerful. Four of those community service kids had some sort of superpower caused by a storm. It wasn’t surprising that Nathan was the only one without a power, but the way Five clammed up about it was. Diego hated how the old man did that. He was definitely hiding something, and considering that last time he hid something the world ended, it couldn’t be anything good.

Diego opened the door at the top of the steps. A quick glance around the mismatched orange furniture arranged on the roof top told him that the search was over. He called back down the stairwell.

“Found him.” 

Lying on the couches in a tangle of purple and green parachute material were two boys, one of which would be his brother. The other would be his brother’s brother.

He peeled the sleeping bag off the first body. 

Curled on his side was Klaus, eyes still closed. The entire side of his face was swollen and bruised. Diego noticed the stains on the collar of his jacket first, then that his hair was matted at the back. He touched it, his fingers coming away with tacky dried blood.

Diego tore the sleeping bag off the other boy, shaking him awake roughly. Nathan woke slowly, mumbling as his eyes squinted to adjust to the sudden light. He had a monsterous shiner darkening one eye. 

Number Two’s patience wore thin. He dragged Nathan to his feet by the collar of his jacket, who let out a choked off cry at the sudden movement.

“What happened to him?”

“Who?” Nathan asked, eyebrows raised in an effort to open his eyes. He managed to get his unbruised eye open. The other was almost completely closed over. Diego gave him another shake to draw his attention up to his face.

“My brother.” 

Diego waited rather patiently, considering how much he’d already had to display the virtue already that morning. Realisation dawned over Nathan’s racooned face and his head snapped towards where Klaus was still curled up. He held his hands up so similar to how Klaus would, especially after he got those damned tattoos.

“He’s fine, I swear!”

Only Diego saw the flash of blue near the door to the stairwell.

His smallest brother held out his wrist, looking at his watch with an amused smirk.

“Five, four, three, two . . “

The door slammed open, banging loudly against the bricks. Luther ducked through the frame looking anything but casual even though he was wearing a Wertham Community Centre Running Club hoodie and track pants. Diego couldn’t help notice that even when he had a choice, he still went for uniform. 

Behind him was Allison, followed by Vanya pulling at the sleeve of her jumper than she’d been wearing. 

Luther’s eyes scanned over the boy clutched in Diego’s grip before realising it wasn’t Klaus.

“Where is he?” Luther demanded. It was then that Vanya gasped, noticing the bunched up sleeping bag on the other couch. She was soon at his side, gingerly shaking her still-passed-out brother.

“Explain,” Diego demanded, pulling Nathan’s face close to his own until he realised that he reeked of alcohol. With a grunt of disgust, he dropped him back on the couch. Nathan fell back with a grunt, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“I don’t hear talking!” Luther added, just having to get involved. Diego shook his head, pulling a knife out of his pocket. He turned it over in his hands, eyeing Nathan who looked paler than Klaus normally did.

“We went out and possibly maybe got into a teeny weeny little fight.”

Diego took a single step forward. He didn’t miss how Nathan edged back on the couch. 

“So, you know that my brother hit his head and you still let him go to sleep even though he could have had a concussion?” Diego asked, keeping his voice icily calm. Nathan bit his lip, eye darting between Diego and his own knee.

“Diego, that’s hardly the point!” Luther shouted. Diego turned around, shooting a glare at him with the accuracy that he usually threw knives with. 

For Christ’s sake, when would Luther learn that Diego had been _trained_ in interrogation? Would he just shut up already? He turned back to the task at hand.

“So what was the fight about?”

Nathan looked between Diego, Luther and Allison, who was standing next to Klaus with her arms folded. Vanya had tucked the sleeping bag over Klaus and was now sitting on the arm of the couch. 

The fleeting eye contact, the way his breathing picked up - Diego could tell the lie before he even opened his mouth.

“You’ll have to ask Klaus, I don’t know. I only got there late, see, we were leaving and I was getting this kebab and the girl in the line before me had these huge tits, and the guy from the van was like ‘want more sauce with that’ and next thing he’s squeezed the sauce bottle . . .”

The knife landed a centimetre from Nathan’s ear, embedded deeply into the orange couch.

“Fuck man!” he shouted, leaping to his feet. He looked horrified as he backed away. 

“Diego,” Vanya chided, not bothering to hide her exasperation.

Emboldened, Nathan stepped forward purposefully. 

“Jesus! I don’t know why you’re all so angry! I looked after him!”

“Looked after him?” Luther asked, balling his fists. Even without his gorilla body, he still held the same posture. “You looked after him? He’s a fucking _junkie_ who’s always just looking to get his next high. Taking him to get it is not helping!”

Nathan’s mouth dropped open as if he’d been slapped. Then something to Luther’s left caught his attention. The siblings all spun around. 

Klaus. He was well and truly awake now, sitting up on the couch, chewing his lip. There was no doubting whether he’d heard Luther. His downcast eyes told Diego everything.

“Klaus, are you OK?” Vanya asked, climbing over the arm of the couch to sit next to him. She fussed over him, pushing up his hair at the back. He gently pried her probing hands away, standing up on shaking legs. 

“Klaus,” Allison started. She reached out for her brother like a dancer asking for a partner. Klaus dodged out of her way, hugging his shoulders tightly. He sped up as he stumbled towards the door, ripping it open before he disappeared in the stairwell. 

“Well done Number One,” Five grinned. He followed after Klaus.

Diego glared at Luther, unsatisfied when his brother refused to look up. He had to settle for knocking his shoulder into their supposed leader as he followed the others. 

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

“Hey.”

Stupid Simon, say something better than _hey_. She’s clearly upset you absolute twat. And when did you start using Nathan’s insults?

“Oh hey,” Vanya said, brightly. She was leaning against the railing along the river, looking out at the calm water. The morning sunlight lit up her face, making her brown hair glow gold. 

“Is everything OK?”

Vanya’s shoulders dropped. 

“Just family issues. It’s hard, all of us being together again.”

“Oh yeah, Five was saying that you guys were taking like a gap year trip together.” It had sounded made up but to be honest most things that Five and Vanya had said sounded ridiculous. “Did you not see each other much before that?”

Vanya leaned her elbows against the railing. 

“We barely saw each other for years. Now, everything is different. We are all different people.”

“Even you?” Simon asked nervously. He relaxed when Vanya smiled. She shook her head.

“I’m the most different of them all. Before, I was Seven, the one without powers. Then I found out that I had powers all along and now, I don’t know where I fit in.”

Simon rested his hands on the railing next to Vanya, taking care not to get too close or to accidentally bump her. 

“Then everything got crazy, and I did . . . I did things I regret and even though everyone has been saying that it wasn’t my fault, I just keep thinking about it.”

She took in a deep shuddering breath. Simon inched his hand towards Vanya’s. 

_Just take it._

_She’s upset._

He placed his hand over Vanya’s. She turned to smile at him, taking his hand in her own. He smiled back at her. 

“I feel like that too, sometimes.”

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

Nathan found Klaus in the storeroom of the main hall. He pulled the roller door down shut after himself. 

Klaus was sitting on the floor, head tilted back on the shelves on a slight angle to avoid the damaged skin at the back of his head. Nathan hoped he didn’t really have a concussion, although he wouldn’t have a clue what to look for. Klaus’ eyes flicked over to Nathan before returning to stare at the wall. 

“You OK?” Nathan asked, sitting next to him. Klaus shrugged. He was still wearing his ridiculous orange mesh top. He must have been freezing, it had been a cold night on the rooftop. Nathan’s hair was damp from the dew. 

An age passed in silence before Klaus spoke.

“It’s true, in case you were wondering.”

“What, that Luther is a gorilla?” Nathan managed to get a smirk from Klaus. After another moment, he looked down at his palms as if searching for something that wasn’t there. He resigned to scrubbing at his face, wincing as he touched the bruising.

“We probably should have gotten that ice last night,” Nathan said, stretching his legs out. His face felt like it was about to explode. “I checked in the bathroom - I look like a fucking pirate.”

“The air was probably colder than ice,” Klaus responded without his usual cheeriness. He drew in a deep breath, pulling out the dog tags from under his shirt. They didn’t look like the cheap kind that chavs got down at the market. They looked . . . real.

“What’s with those?” 

Klaus touched them to his mouth, absently pressing them against his bottom lip before he spoke.

“They belonged to someone special.” 

The reverence in the way Klaus spoke told Nathan that this wasn’t a family member that died in a war or a friend even. 

“His name was Dave.”

“Where is he now?”

Klaus blinked a few times before looking away. Nathan saw him quickly swipe at his eyes.

“I don’t know, but I can only see him again if I can get sober.” 

Nathan could only imagine what it would be like to care about someone with an addiction. His best friend in primary school was a guy called Max. His mum was an alcoholic. She’d be on and off the wagon all the time, picking him up from school drunk and merry one day, screaming the house down the next. In the end his dad couldn’t take it anymore. The two of them moved back to Belfast. He’d been devastated to lose his best friend. A year, he’d overheard a neighbour tell his mum one night that Max’s mum had killed herself.

It was a hard ultimatum that this Dave had given Klaus, but he could understand why he would do it.

“What are you going to do?”

“Only one thing I can do.” Klaus sniffed. “I don’t even know if I can see him anymore, but I have to try.”

Nathan patted a hand on Klaus’ knee.

“You know, last week, I turn up for community service and I’m walking past here and I can hear these sounds, like _urrgggg, aHHUUH_ , right? Coming from this storeroom. So I listen in and it’s Curtis and Alisha, rubbing themselves off _together_. Like they were watching each other. Tried to catch the dirty pricks in the act but they locked the fucking roller door.”

After a beat, both Klaus and Nathan burst out laughing.

“C’mon, we better shower or we’re gonna be late.”

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

It was too early in the morning for the sight that confronted Kelly as she turned the corner of the change rooms.

With only a towel wrapped firmly around his waist, Klaus stood under the light in the bathroom bent over, hands on his knees while Nathan, wearing just his jocks and singlet after finishing his own shower examined the cut on the back of Klaus’ head. Neither of them had heard her come in.

“I don’ even wanna know what the fuck you two think you’re doing,” she said, announcing her presence. Curtis followed in behind her and shielded his eyes, letting out a disgusted sound. Alisha laughed, pulling her jumpsuit out of her locker.

“Nah, at least put some fucking pants on,” he groused, opening his locker and throwing his bag in. He got out his deodorant and started spraying it across himself in diagonal lines. Kelly hated it. The smell reminded her of of her ex-fiance, as short lived as their engagement had been.

“Come here a minute and help me!” Nathan called out, still studying the back of Klaus’ head. Kelly looked at Curtis and Alisha then groaned, resigning to being roped into whatever stupid shit Nathan was up to. 

“You look like a pair ‘o monkeys,” she said as she approached the pair. She folded her arms, popping her hip out. 

Nathan’s tongue was poking out the side of his mouth as he parted Klaus’ hair. 

“I just can’t quite see -”

Nathan turned his head to get a better look.

“What the _fuck_ happened to you?”

Kelly’s outburst sent Alisha and Curtis running from their lockers. Alisha’s hands flew to her mouth while Curtis’ mouth dropped into a big ‘O’. 

The area surrounding Nathan’s eye was completely purple. His cheek had swollen upwards to meet his eyelid.

“You look like a fucking cartoon!” 

Nathan did his best to pull a face at Kelly despite the swelling making it impossible to move half his muscles. 

“Can I stand up yet?” Klaus complained, arching his back. 

“I haven’t found the cut yet,” Nathan tutted. 

“Maybe there isn’t one.” Klaus replied. Nathan shook his head.

“There was blood. There has to be a cut.”

Kelly groaned and pushed Nathan aside. 

“Get outta me way.” She parted Klaus’ hair with her long fingernails. Alisha looked over her shoulder, sticky-beaking. Kelly felt a swollen lump towards the base of Klaus’ skull. She felt him tense as she inspected more closely.

“You’re right, there’s just a tiny cut, but heads can bleed a lot, yeah?”

Klaus stood up in a languorous stretch. Kelly caught sight of his face in the mirror.

“Holy shit! What the _fuck_ did you two do last night?”

Klaus looked even worse than Nathan. While his bruises weren’t as comically dark, they coloured his face from his forehead down the side of his face to his jaw. Where it wasn’t bruised, his skin was as washed out as the walls of the changerooms. 

“Well, there were these two girls you see, but we had to fight a whole gang of Romanian MMA fighters who just wouldn’t take know for an answer . . .”

Curtis scoffed. He tied his jumpsuit around his waist. Kelly had never understood how he could handle having it in way like that all day.

“So, you got in a fight and got your arses kicked is what you’re saying?”

Klaus looked at Nathan, poking his bottom lip out as he shrugged.

“Pretty much.”

While Nathan had a silent conversation with Klaus about not blowing his lies, the others zipped up and went to meet their probation worker.

Their probation worker was an absolute dick. Alisha dunked the mop back in the bucket, slopping water all over the concrete. He couldn’t even be bothered giving them the right stuff. At least the last probation worker had given them squeegees and stuff to clean the windows. He just gave them dirty mops and a few buckets. Plus she always caught him looking at her tits. 

“Where’s your brother?” Alisha asked, noticing that Klaus had slacked off _again_. A hangover was not a good enough reason to leave all the work to the others. It was bad enough that Simon had turned up late. She had to fill her bucket and carry it back by herself. 

“He’s just feeling a bit under the weather,” Nathan replied. 

“Well he can vomit in his bucket for all I care. He doesn’t get to slack off.”

Alisha dropped her mop into the bucket, sloshing the water over the sides. She was sick of Nathan always weaseling his way out of things, and even though she knew that technically Klaus wasn’t Nathan, he kind of was. 

She found Klaus sitting around the corner on a bench, head between his knees spitting into a nice little puddle of sick between his legs. Gross.

Just as she turned around to get Nathan and tell him to get his useless brother back to work, she heard him talking.

“You know, you are so annoying I can completely understand why they did it.” 

It wasn’t the kind of muttering that she did to herself when she was looking for her keys, it was like he was having a conversation. She looked around, seeing if there was anyone there. 

There wasn’t.

He snorted.

“Pretty clever, actually. When you think about it . . . oh, I don’t care! Can’t you see I’m a little busy?”

Alisha scurried back to the others. 

“Your brother is completely mental,” she announced, walking straight up to Nathan. “He is having a full blown conversation back there _with himself_. Like actually talking to no-one.”

Nathan threw an arm around her shoulders, as casually as he could while taking care not to touch her skin. 

“Just lay off him, yeah? He’s going through some shit right now.”

Simon had stopped what he was doing and was watching them. 

“Stop starting and get some work done so we can go!” Alisha said, storming off in a huff. She needed to go pee.

Klaus was having a difficult day. Staying away from his usual crutches was affecting him more quickly than usual. He hadn’t been able to keep down his lunch and instead settled for a small pouch of crisps from one of those multipacks that Simon offered him out of the lunch his mum had packed. He took the snack gratefully, the crispy saltiness easier on his stomach than the sandwich he’d tried to eat. His face was throbbing and he felt dizzy which was doing nothing to settle his guts.

The ghosts had been getting more vocal too. There were so many of them for a place that was meant to be a community centre. From what the ghosts had been shouting at him all day, it seemed like some crazy shit had gone down. 

Klaus tipped his bucket down the drain. Cleaning the windows of the community centre wasn’t as fun as their other jobs. Klaus was soaked after Alisha made him do all the high windows, meaning the water dripped all over him. He tried to keep track of their banter but he had to focus so much on each word that by the time he understood the next one, he’d forgotten the context of the sentence. If he was honest, he was looking forward to a hot shower and then going straight to bed. 

The shower had been blissfully hot and almost sent him to sleep under the spray. He dressed clumsily, delaying the inevitable question that hung over him of where he would sleep tonight.

Klaus wound a towel turban on his head. His head had been too sore to towel dry, so he figured he would just leave it on to keep his head warm while he slept with wet hair, although he wasn’t sure how practical the idea would be once he lay down, wherever he did end up laying down to sleep. 

He stepped out of the changeroom and walked past the hall.

Through the meshed glass, he could see them all sitting at the table, eating something that Diego had cooked up. It smelled like his tacos. 

Ben looked up. They locked eyes. He needed to say sorry, he needed to -

Luther was staring at him. 

Klaus quickly looked down. He fled from the window, making his way to the stairs that led to Nathan’s mezzanine. 

Ben hated Luther sometimes.

Their fearless leader shook his too-small head as Klaus ran from the window like a puppy. 

“There he goes, running off to his new brother,” he said, letting the bitterness prickle through his voice. Ben glared at Luther who sat across from him at the table, as invisible to his bigger brother as he had been as a ghost.

Diego set down his taco on his plate and leaned back on his chair, throwing his hands up in resignation. 

“Can you blame him? It’s not like we made him feel welcome here.”

“C’mon Diego, it’s always the same with Klaus. He screws up, then he wants back in, then he screws up again. How many times do we put up with that?” Allison asked with a tilt of her head, waiting for an answer. Five looked up expectantly, watching the show.

“But we can’t just give up on him,” Vanya added. “He’s our brother.” Ben was surprised that she was disputing her new ally. From the expression on Allison’s face, she was surprised too. 

“We all know what you really think, Vanya. Your book said that you thought Klaus was a failure,” Luther cut in spitefully. Vanya’s face flushed. She looked down at her plate, considering her next words.

“No, I said he was a failure of Dad’s methods.” She shuffled in her seat. “I . . .I mean, I was trying to say that the training and the missions and the competitiveness had the opposite effect on Klaus. It made his life hell.”

Luther scoffed, shaking his head.

“That’s just making excuses.The simple fact is Klaus makes bad choices” Luther sounded out each word, as if talking to a child. “He only thinks about himself. Even after we’ve all gone back in time and started again, it takes him what, _one day_ to get himself arrested..." he counted off on his fingers "... sneak out to get high then end up in a fight. We have to face it. He doesn’t want to be a part of this family.”

Ben stood up so quickly his chair clanged back against the lino floor. He dived across the table, sending the plastic picnic plates scattering. Before anyone had a chance to react, Ben had his brother by the front of his hoodie, teeth gritted as he tried to get a better grip. Luther grappled with his skinny arms, unable to get a good angle to pull him off. Someone (probably Diego) already Ben by the ankles. He tugged him back while Allison yelled at him to stop. Five watched gleefully.

Diego finally grabbed Ben by the shoulders and pulled him off the table. Ben fell on his arse, bouncing back to his feet with lightning speed. 

The Horror shifted in his stomach, waiting for their call. Ben balled his fists.

"Ben. . . " Diego put a hand on his shoulder. Ben threw it off and turned back to Luther who was now on his feet as well with just the table to separate them. Ben pointed his shaking finger at his bigger brother. 

"You fucking arsehole!" he screamed. "You all go on about how hard you all had it with your powers but you have no idea. None of you have _any idea_ what it’s like for him. The ghosts, they scream and beg _all the time_. He can't escape."

Ben looked at all his brothers and sisters in turn. Only Vanya made eye contact. 

"When I died, you all spent months moping around getting to wallow in your grief and guilt but Klaus had to push it all aside because I needed him and he was the only one who could help. He never complained, even when I had just died and I was still . . . like the other ghosts.”

Ben gasped in a deep breath. That was . . . not a great time for him. Finding himself newly deceased in a ghost body that had been torn apart was a horror that even he had not imagined. It had taken him a year to start to control how he looked, to put his insides back where they belonged. His poor brother was there the whole time, holding his hand while no-one even believed that he could be seen.

The Horror were starting to stabilise, swirling in more of a holding pattern rather than threatening to burst forth. 

“You don’t see him. You never look! You just push him away because it makes you feel better about your own fucked up lives. He takes the drugs to stop the ghosts - you know it but none of you have ever helped. I watched you push him away. Your junkie brother, the family embarrassment.” 

“Ben,” Allison said softly, holding her hands out to test the water. She looked at Luther before continuing. “I get what you’re saying, really I do, but we’ve tried to help him.”

Ben shook his head, smiling despite himself. Of course, Allison was a master at the Hargreeves skill of deflecting blame. Better to divert attention away from the cause of problem than risk taking responsibility. 

“You send him off to rehab without even caring that as soon as he gets clean, the ghosts come back. He can never win because being sober is so horrific, and yet he still tries. He tries and you can’t even _try_ to understand what it’s like for him. He cares so much about all of you.”

“It would be good if he showed it." 

Something dangerous must have flashed across Ben’s face because Luther for once actually looked scared. Ben leaned forward on the table, bracing himself on extended arms. He ignored the way that Diego hovered, ready to grab him.

“He was kidnapped and you didn’t even notice. Those aresholes tortured him for hours before he escaped, then his reward is to be sent back in time to the front lines of the Vietnam War. He met the love of his life there, who he had to watch ten months later bleed to death in his arms. Then, all by himself, he got sober even though he had to deal with the torture of going to a rave to chase your furry arse because you were having an existential crisis about _the moon_. Then, if that wasn’t enough, he stops a guy whose girlfriend you shagged from smashing your head in with a baseball bat, which gets him killed, just for you to leave him dead on the ground Is that showing that he cares enough?.” 

Ben stands up straight, relishing in the thickness that has settled in the air. 

“You don’t deserve a brother like him.”

He left without looking back.

Ben would have been lying if he said he wasn't disappointed to find Klaus fast asleep tangled in his sleeping bag on the mezzanine. Although he wasn't sleeping peacefully, he looked exhausted. Ben was loathe to disturb him.

Just as Ben turned to leave he heard a set of footsteps echo up the stairs.

Nathan was carrying a gym mat folded over in half. Klaus had fallen asleep on his own mat. The gesture was so brotherly that Ben suddenly felt on the outside. 

"Sorry . . . I was just . . . " Ben said, before changing his mind and pushing past Nathan to make his escape. 

"He's sorry," Nathan said softly. Ben stopped, gripping the stair rail. He looked back at his brother, mumbling to himself in his sleep like he always did. This would be the second night in the last thirteen years that he didn’t spend by his side.

With a curt nod, he continued down the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, Klaus can't be away from Ben for too long.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, this one's a big chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Nathan woke to someone shaking his shoulder, quietly calling his name. He pushed the hands away, rolling over face down on his pillow. 

“Nathan, c’mon, we’re going to be late.”

So it was Klaus trying to wake him up. He sounded far too alert for someone who had spent all night tossing around in his sleeping bag and yelling out in his sleep. Nathan had barely gotten any sleep himself after being woken up several times to Klaus’ shouts. He had tried to block out the sound with his pillow curved around his head until Klaus had started screaming “ _Dad, no, please, please I’ll be good. Please not there!_ ”. While Klaus had exhausted himself and drifted off shortly after, his cries had left Nathan chilled to the bone wondering what exactly he was dreaming about. 

He had to get Ben and Klaus reunited. His sleep depended on it. 

Nathan pushed himself up with a groan, sitting back on his knees. He rubbed his eyes, feeling more tired than when he had gone to bed the night before. 

Klaus was sitting on the other mat, legs crossed and his sleeping bag worn line a cape. His hair was a mess. Being shorter, the curls weren’t as defined as his own and just looked like a birds nest. Obviously Klaus didn’t know that curls get the girls. Or maybe he did, and he just didn’t want the girls. 

“What time is it?” Nathan asked as he began to roll up his sleeping bag. He was pretty sure the probation worker knew that he was sleeping in the community centre, but he always liked to pack his stuff away just in case. 

“Eight-forty five.” Klaus said, eyes flicking back and forth from the stairwell. 

“Shit.” Saturday community service was the worst. Nathan was pretty sure that they weren’t meant to be working on weekends, but their sadistic prick of a probation worker obviously didn’t care. He’d always have them working away from the community centre too. Nathan bet that the twat pissed off back home as soon as they were out the door. 

Thinking about the reprimand he’d be getting from Kelly if he was late, he stood up.

“I know I’m beautiful, but don’t just sit there staring - get dressed!” Nathan said, throwing Klaus’ jumpsuit at him. Klaus fumbled the catch, still watching the stairs. Nathan looked over but there was nothing there. 

A few minutes later they were both dressed and packed up. Nathan followed Klaus down the stairs who was walking in a weird pattern, pressing too far to the left railing. 

He realised it had been just over twenty-four hours since Klaus last had anything to take away his sobriety. 

“How are you feeling today?” Nathan asked, making the most of their privacy before joining the group in the foyer. 

“Fine, good!” he said with absent-minded cheeriness. “Could have gone for some breakfast. Do you guys even have waffles here?” 

Nathan took Klaus’ cue and dropped the subject. Klaus looked even paler than he had when he was hungover. There were bags under his eyes to add to the bruising that was now turning green. He was struggling to keep his hands still, knotting them together in different formations while his eyes moved around the corridor. 

“Where are Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dumber?”

The probation worker was such a dick. Kelly glowered at him, arms crossed. 

“They have names, y’know.”

He didn’t even look up from his clipboard.

“I’m sure they do, I just can’t be bothered learning them.” 

Kelly rolled her eyes. Of the three of them, this probation worker was definitely the worst, and that was saying something considering what happened with the others. 

Nathan rolled around the corner, yawning loudly as he stretched his arms high over his head. Klaus walked behind him, fidgeting. He was starting to look more like Simon. Speaking of which, they’d never found out why he was late yesterday . . .

“Right. Gardening. Here’s a map. You’re doing the garden beds on the estates that are highlighted. The groundsman will be waiting for you at the equipment shed.”

Of course Nathan had a question.

“If there’s a groundsman, why do we have to do their work for them?” 

The probation worker sighed, then whacked Nathan across the head with his clipboard before walking off. He flipped them the bird without turning around. 

Jeeyasus. If the other two probation workers were like him, I can see why these guys killed them.

Kelly froze looking at the others desperately. It was definitely a male voice that her powers picked up, not Alisha. It didn’t sound like Simon either, and besides, the voice had said ‘they’, and Simon had been involved. They’d all been involved. All except . . . 

Klaus was tapping his fingers against his unmarked cheek, humming to himself as he bounced on his heels. 

How did he find out? Kelly was going to be having words with Nathan. 

Her chance came when Klaus took on the job of mowing the lawns. As soon as the mower had been wheeled out by the shrivelled up groundskeeper, Klaus jumped around with his hand up.

“Please, please, please, can I?” The groundskeeper grunted around the cigarette that was hanging out of his mouth, which Klaus took as a yes. 

Kelly waited until he was happily pushing the mower in zig zagging lines around the central scrap of grass between the estate flats before she pulled Nathan behind the bushes they were meant to be hedging. 

Nathan raised his eyebrows suggestively, licking his lips.

“Well, I can’t say this is unexpected, what with the way you’ve been eyeing my arse like it’s a piece of meat. I caught you watching me the other day in the locker room.”

Kelly gave him a slap across his ear. 

“Ow! Why does everyone keep doing that?’ He rubbed his ear exaggeratedly even though Kelly had barely touched him. 

“Did you tell Klaus about the probation workers?” 

Nathan looked back at her with wide green eyes. Truthfully, he wasn’t actually that bad looking. She could do worse.

“No! Of course not!”

Kelly raised her hand, earning a flinch from Nathan who flapped his arms in some sort of an attempt at self defence.

“Do you want another slap?”

“No, unless you’re into that kinda thing?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. Kelly slapped him. 

“Monkey slut! Monkey slut! I’m using my safe word!” Nathan cowered back into the bushes, covering his head with his elbows. Kelly leaned over him, pointing her finger.

“Did you tell ‘im?” She was shouting.

“No! I swear on my mother’s life! Why would I tell him?” 

Kelly stepped back, crossing her arms. 

“I dunno, you two a pretty close. Even sharing you’re jumpsuits and ev’ryfing.”

They both looked through a gap in the bushes at Klaus. He was standing still behind the lawnmower, holding the handle and letting the vibrations shake through his body. Sure enough, he was wearing Nathan’s BLOWBACK jumpsuit. Nathan let out a snort. He looked up at Kelly.

“He stayed over at mine last night. We were in a bit of a rush this morning, we must have got them mixed up.”

Kelly wrinkled her nose.

“You know, if you are actually brothers, that shit is illegal.”

Nathan looked horrified, holding a hand to his chest. 

“You know I don’t mean like that! What sort of sick bastard do you think I am?”

Kelly rolled her eyes, walking back to the wheelbarrow of dirt that she and Simon were meant to be shovelling. She definitely heard Klaus say, no _think_ , that they killed their probation workers. However he found out, he knew, and that was dangerous.

They returned to the community centre just before five, sweaty and dirty and covered in bits of grass. Right before they packed up, Klaus had been carrying the grass catcher to empty into the green bin and he tripped, sending grass confetti all over Kelly and Simon who were waiting to empty their wheelbarrow full of weeds. 

Kelly didn’t care if he was new or if his face looked like a rainbow ice-cream. He got a slap. 

He was still rubbing his head and pouting as they entered the building. 

“I can’t feel my arms,” Nathan whined, dangling them by his sides for emphasis.

“Fuck your arms, you were doing the easy shit cutting the hedges. I had to carry that brush cutter all day,” Curtis complained, rubbing his forearms. 

“My back’s killing me from bending over all day.” Alisha bent luxuriously over to touch her toes. Simon looked away quickly, scratching at his neck. 

“Simon and I are covered in grass because Klaus is a dickhead,” Kelly deadpanned.

Heavy footsteps interrupted the group’s complaints. Klaus’ brother, the big one, came around the corner. Kelly hoped that he didn’t hear her call Klaus a dickhead, although it didn’t seem like the two of them got on all that well anyway. 

Klaus groaned when he saw his brother. The others took their cue to disappear into the changerooms, although Nathan stayed behind, standing next to Klaus with his arms crossed.

Kelly left them to it. It was a perfect chance to talk to the others alone.

Luther could not believe Nathan. He just met Klaus a few days ago and here he was, staring him down like some sort of guard dog. Klaus was his brother. Who did he think he was? 

Well, he didn’t really know who he really was, but who did he think he thought he was?

Nevermind, it was beside the point. 

“What do you want Luther?” Klaus asked. He rubbed his head and sighed as if he had better things to do than talk to his brother. This is what he meant last night. Ben hadn’t been around for the last thirteen years. He never saw how Klaus was with them. 

“Five wants to talk to us all tonight. Even you.”

“Oh goodie,” Klaus said with false cheer. “Sounds like good news.”

A waft of something caught Luther’s attention. He sniffed again. 

“Is that . . are you using again?”

Klaus’ face dropped.

“Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t?” 

Klaus’ sidekick decided to pipe up. 

“I’ll have you know that he hasn’t touched anything since Thursday night. Sober as a priest.” He paused thoughtfully. “Sober as a non-Irish priest. Maybe a monk. Sober as one of those orange robe wearing monks that don’t eat meat.”

Luther loomed over Klaus, who was fidgeting with the damned dog tags that he’d started wearing around his neck right before the Apocalypse. 

“Then what can I smell?”

Klaus sniffed, then took a deep breath and sniffed longer. Suddenly his face relaxed into a smile.

“It’s grass.”

“Weed is still a drug Klaus.”

Klaus waved his hands, grinning at Nathan. 

“Not that sort of grass, silly. Actual grass.” 

He pulled a blade out of his hair to demonstrate. Luther noticed his hands were shaking as he held the grass in his fingers. Sober _my arse_. 

“Now, I’m off to go shoot up, if you’ll excuse me.”

He slung an arm around Nathan’s neck and walked off. 

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

“So you’re saying that you heard him think that we killed our probation workers.”

“ _Yeah!_ ” Kelly repeated. Curtis looked alarmed.

The four of them were gathered in the change rooms, huddled behind a row of lockers. 

“What if he tells the cops?” Curtis asked. 

“I want to know how he found out." Alisha added. Curtis threw his hands up.

“Of course Nathan told him.”

Kelly shook her head.

“Nah, I asked him and he swore on his mum’s life.”

Curtis bit his lip, thinking about whether that was enough of a guarantee. Kelly tipped her head back against the locker.

“What do we do?”

Simon had been uncharacteristically quiet, even for him. Kelly noticed that he was rubbing his fringe more than usual. 

“Simon?”

He looked up at her, fear in his blue eyes. 

“I . . . I think he might be able to _see_ the probation workers.”

Kelly stood up straight. Curtis stepped in and Alisha unfolded her arms. 

“What do you mean he can see them?” 

Simon’s eyes darted between them as his body tensed. 

“H . . he . . he can see ghosts. I think that he might be able to see _their_ ghosts.”

“So he has a power? From the storm? Why didn’t you tell us?” Kelly asked. 

Kelly heard the unmistakable echoing sound of Nathan and Klaus cackling as they entered the changerooms. She bent down low.

“Let’s meet out the front later, yeah?”

The other three nodded, then split off innocently pretending to get ready for their showers. 

Luther knew he only had a small window. Once he heard the showers turn on, he crept into the changerooms. Standing behind the lockers, he counted the number of closed doors on the shower cubicles. Two on the left, four on the right. He didn’t have much time. 

There were piles of orange jumpsuits scattered in front of each cubicle. Luther snuck up to the bench outside the ones on the right that must have been the boys. Nathan was singing, butchering what could have been Simple Minds’ _Don’t you_. The first jumpsuit was neatly folded. Definitely not Klaus. The second one had a singlet piled on top of it and a pair of runners that were too big and too expensive looking to belong to his brother. The next one could have been his, but then he saw the dog tags placed on top of the last one. He moved the dog tags to the side, lifting up the jumpsuit. It had the words on the back changed with marker, just like the jumpsuit he’d seen Klaus in moments earlier. 

Like a thief in the night, Luther patted down the pockets. He felt something plasticy crinkle in the breast pocket. He unzipped it, digging around until he found the plastic bag. 

While he didn’t recognise it, he knew what it was. He kept searching until he found another bump in the leg pocket. He pulled out a small bag of weed and a joint. 

The fucking liar. 

Luther heard the squeak of the tap as one of the girls’ showers turned off. He dropped the suit, pocketing the drugs before sneaking out of the changerooms.

The meeting tonight was going to be interesting.

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

Ben found him sitting in the wheelchair, casting some fuschia pink wool onto a pair of knitting needles. He recognised it for what it was - Klaus trying to keep his mind occupied. His fingers shook as he tried to loop the yarn, tongue pushing against his bottom lip. 

This was a sober Klaus. 

“Hey.”

Klaus looked up. Ben couldn’t help but feel hurt at the way his face dropped.

“Hey.”

Ben took the other wheelchair and moved it so it was opposite Klaus’ before taking a seat. Klaus looked back down at his tangle of knitting.

“How’s it going?”

Klaus shrugged. 

“I can’t remember how to do it. It’s like my fingers don’t remember because I didn’t learn how to knit until I went to rehab.”

“I meant how are _you_ going?”

Klaus shrugged again. 

“I’m trying. But . . .” He looked up at Ben with glassy eyes before dropping his gaze back to his lap. 

“I’m so sorry for everything I said that night.” Klaus looked back up, taking a deep breath before continuing. “I always thought you hated being stuck with me.”

Ben clutched the arms of Klaus’ wheelchair, drawing it closer until their knees touched. 

“I wasn’t stuck with you. I chose to stay with you.” 

Klaus looked at his hands. They were shaking in his lap.

“Why would you want to stay with me?” he mumbled. “Luther’s right, I’m junkie.”

“Luther’s a dick.” 

Klaus snorted. Ben reached for Klaus’ trembling hands, closing his own over them until they stilled. 

“Klaus, I stayed with you because I love you and I didn’t want you to be alone.”

Klaus ducked his head, scrubbing at his eyes with the backs of his hands. 

“Come here,” Ben said, holding out his arms. Klaus climbed out of his chair and wriggled onto Ben’s lap, long legs hanging over the arm of the chair as he buried his face into Ben’s neck. Ben bit his lip.

“Stop fucking making me cry you stupid jerk,” Ben said. Klaus laughed into his chest before breaking into louder sobs. Ben held him. 

“I missed you Benny,” Klaus mumbled into his jumper. Ben stroked his back, holding him tightly. 

“I missed you too.”

Once Klaus had finished wiping his nose on his sleeve, he sat up, arm looped around Ben’s neck.

“How’s the sobriety going?” 

Klaus rolled his eyes.

“Just as shit as last time.”

Last time had been hard. Klaus was grieving for Dave and dealing with the after effects of being tortured and left for dead, but at least he’d had Ben there to help him. 

“I’m sorry. I should have been here for you.” 

Klaus waved him away. 

“Don’t even, Ben. Besides, Nathan’s been good. I think he’s about to kick me out of his loft though. I think I kept him awake all night.”

Ben nodded. “That does take some getting used to. How are they . . . the ghosts?”

He noticed the way Klaus flinched at the question. He’d seen his eyes flitting around the room while they’d been talking. 

“Are there a lot?”

Klaus nodded. He rested his head on Ben’s shoulder.

“Some freaky shit’s happened here, that’s all I can say. Although, there’s something a bit weird with some of them,” he added thoughtfully. “It’s like some of them are here but they don’t seem like they belong here.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like they’re from somewhere else. Or . . somewhen else? I don’t know.”

“Maybe it’s something to do with time travel?” 

Klaus snorted. 

“Now you sound like Five. How has our little assassin been going without his beloved Apocalypse?”

“Pretty good. I heard he tried to throw a knife at Luther last night.”

Klaus’s head snapped up.

“What? Isn’t that more Diego’s jam?”

“Diego threw a chair. Well, first he threw a taco, then he threw the chair. Or that’s what Five said.” 

“What? I’m out of the family for a day and I miss all the good stuff. What the hell was going on?”

“I may have shared a few thoughts calmly with the rest of our family over dinner.”

Klaus snorted. 

“Why don’t I believe you? What thoughts?”

“That they are all jerks to you and treat you like shit even though you are the kindest one out of all of us.”

Ben looked away from his brother who’s eyes were starting to shine again. Klaus and his fucking emotions. Ben blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of that weird stinging feeling in his own eyes.

“Anyways, then Luther was all like about to take down Diego when Vanya’s powers started up. They all sat down quick smart after that. Good news is that Five said she was able to rein them in instead of letting them get all end-the-world out of control.”

“Good for her,” Klaus said, sniffing. He smiled at Ben. 

Five tapped his foot impatiently, checking his watch. Vanya was sitting on the edge of a folding chair next to him, waiting for their siblings. 

“About time,” Five grumbled when the door of the main hall opened. He sighed audibly when he saw that it was Simon. 

“Hey Simon,” Vanya said brightly. God, she really did have a type. Nerdy, awkward, a bit of serial killer about them. 

“Er, hi Vanya. Um, can I talk to you about something?”

Five cut across. “We’re busy right now, we’re just waiting for our family to get here.”

Simon swapped his weird computer bag from one hand to the other. 

“It’s important.”

Five rolled his eyes and turned away in a huff. 

“It’s about your brother.”

“Which one?” Five and Vanya said in unison. 

“Klaus. Y. . .you said that he can see ghosts. Does that mean that he can see people who might have died in a particular place?”

So he was a serial killer. 

“I, I don’t know. Five, do you know how his powers work?” 

Five eyed Simon carefully, feeling pleased when the other boy squirmed on the spot. 

“Why are you asking?”

“No reason.” He answered too quickly. Five narrowed his eyes and stepped forward into Simon’s space. Simon took a step back. 

“Who did you kill?” 

Simon stepped back quickly, eyes wide. 

“I didn’t kill anybody!” he said in a shaking voice. “I . . it . .I . .”

The doors burst open again with the sound of cackling laughter. Ben was backing himself into the room in one of the wheelchairs, followed by Klaus who was hanging on, being towed along. 

Simon had made a break to escape out the side door. Five smirked. 

With a flash he blocked Simon’s exit. Simon stumbled back, rushing to the next door. 

Flash-flash. Blocked again. Simon was quivering with fear.

“Five, stop it,” Vanya scolded, stomping her way over. Five held his hands behind his back and leaned in towards Simon, widening his grin.

“Who did you kill?”

The doors burst open again. Five cried out. 

“For the love of God!”

Diego glared at him, walking in with Allison. He took in the scene; Five cornering Simon, Vanya squeezing between them with her arms crossed, Klaus and Ben ramming each other with the wheelchairs. 

“What’s going on?”

“Simon here who has been courting our sister here was just about to tell me who he has killed.”

“ _Killed?_ ” Diego repeated.

“ _Courting!_ ” Vanya spluttered.

“It was their probation worker!” Klaus called out, wheeling his chair around in dizzying circles. He bumped into Ben who had stopped abruptly. 

The door burst open and Nathan walked in with his earphones in. He was humming what could have been _Benny and the jets_ , oblivious to the tension in the room.

“Oh hey Barry, what are you doing here?” he asked, pulling out the earphones. 

“Nathan, we are having a family meeting, and you aren’t invited!” Five roared, fed up with the chaos that was ruining his big revelation. 

Nathan instead continued to the kitchenette, helping himself to a glass of water before lounging over a table, one long leg stretched out. He looked over at Klaus and Ben and grinned, toasting his cup of water.

“Good to see you guys back together,” he said with a smile in his voice. Klaus grinned back then smiled at Ben.

“While this is all very touching, you still need to leave. Family only.”

“I’m his brother,” he said, pointing to Klaus. “That makes me family.”

“You told him?” Allison scolded, turning to Klaus. He held his hands up as if the tattoos were still visible. 

“I swear, I said nothing!”

“What do you mean told me?” Nathan asked, sliding off the table. 

“Nothing!” Ben shouted. He glared at Allison. Allison looked at Five. Five smacked his hand to his head. 

“Hang on . . . “ A collective groan rang out as Nathan started to figure it out. “Do you mean we _are_ brothers? Like actual brothers?” Nathan asked incredulously. Allison looked at the roof. Diego looked out the window. Vanya looked at the floor. Ben looked at his hands. Klaus looked back and forth from Five to Nathan. 

“Fine! You’re his brother!” Five shouted. Nathan’s jaw dropped. He turned to Klaus and gave him a big grin. Klaus grinned back. 

The door smashed open again. 

The athletic one, the yappy one and the one that looked like she’d cut you for looking at her the wrong way, ran into the hall. 

“We heard yelling . . . Where’s Simon?”

He was nowhere to be found, which made sense considering he was invisible. 

Five kicked a folding chair. It flew across the room, smashing into a wall.

“ _Five_ ,” Vanya sighed, letting her disappointment show. 

The door burst open again. Five screamed, stomping his feet like a child. 

Luther didn’t acknowledge Five’s temper tantrum in any way. Instead he walked over to stand in front of Klaus’ wheelchair. He eyed his brother with a kind of malice that made Five’s hackles raise. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the flash of metal in Diego’s hand.

Staring down at Klaus without breaking eye contact, he started speaking.

“Ben, is Klaus high right now?”

Ben stood up from his wheelchair, glaring daggers at Luther.

“You know he’s sober. He’s been sober since Thursday night,” he said in a low voice. 

Luther dug his hand in his hoodie pocket and pulled out two little plastic zip bags. One had what looked like weed and a couple of rolled joints. The other had something that Five recognised as molly. 

“Then why did I find these in his jumpsuit?”

Ben bared his teeth. “Klaus is sober,” he repeated, spitting the words out. 

“Klaus?” Luther asked, throwing the pouches on his lap. Klaus flung them off as if they had burned him. 

“Hi, um, big guy?” Nathan cleared his throat as he stepped over towards where Luther was towering over Klaus. Once Luther turned around he continued. “I think that those items might actually be mine.”

Luther snorted. 

“Of course you’d say that.” He shook his head. “What did he tell you? That they were prescription? That they helped him sleep?”

“They aren’t mine,” Klaus said. Luther turned back around. Klaus took a deep breath and looked his brother in the eye. “I’m clean.”

Luther laughed in his face. “Right, so clean. You’re telling me that you were carrying drugs on you, but didn’t take them. C’mon Klaus, we all know you aren’t capable of that sort of restraint.”

“I wasn’t carrying them!” Klaus argued, his voice getting louder.

“I found them, in that jumpsuit you were wearing with the,” Luther motioned to his own back. “With the . . . marker.”

“Erm,” the cut-a-bitch one interrupted. “That’s Nathan’s. They got ‘em mixed up this morning.”

Luther shook his head, smiling maniacally.

“Is that what he told you?”

“That’s what happened!” Nathan shouted. He put his hands on his hips, looking Luther up and down. “You are a right twat, you know that?”

Ben appeared between Luther and Nathan faster than even Five could have.

“Klaus, is that what happened?” Ben asked calmly.

Klaus nodded. Luther threw his hands in the air.

“He’s lying. That’s all he ever does, lie and then pull those puppy dog eyes and everything is forgiven. 

Klaus jumped to his feet. 

“What is your problem with me?” Klaus’s brow furrowed as he studied his brother. “Are you jealous?”

“ _What?_ ”

Klaus shoved Luther in the chest. “You heard me. You’re jealous, jealous because I stood up to Dad and left and lived my life and you stayed because you were too weak!”

“You _are_ high!” Luther shouted, pushing Klaus back. Ben grappled his way in, squeezing between Klaus and Luther. 

“You said you wished you could be like me! Is that what this is?”

“I’d rather die than be like you.”

Before anyone could react, Ben swung a fist with a force that no-one knew he contained and smacked Luther in the jaw with a loud _thwak_. Diego was there a flash later, pulling Luther away from their usually peace-loving brother. Ben glared at him with eyes that Five swore weren’t that black a second earlier. 

“Everyone, stop!” Cut-a-bitch shouted. She pointed at the ground. 

Klaus was crouched against the stack of chairs, curled in a ball. Nathan was rubbing his back talking to him while Vanya crouched in front of him. 

Klaus’ eyes were jammed shut. His wheezing breaths echoed through the now silent hall. Five knew a panic attack when he saw one. Hell, he’d had enough of them after getting stuck in the future to find that everyone in the world was dead. 

What was more worrying was that his hands were glowing blue. Vanya looked up at five, fear blanching her face. 

They appeared like static television images, flickering like reflections in glass before taking on their more solid blue-ghostly hue. A girl with a headband dividing her long brown hair with a gaping hole in her stomach, oozing blood and what could have been intestines. Near where Allison was standing a beefy dark man, with eyes like Vanya’s had been when she was ending the world, grunted, holding his head. He took his hand away to reveal a section that had been caved in. Blood was streaked down his face. The yappy one started squealing, grabbing at her boyfriend and pulling him back behind Five. Cut-a-bitch backed up to Allison, shaking her head, kohl-rimmed eyes wide. 

Another ghost, a slim woman with freckles appeared, staring at a wall. She spoke in a kind voice.

“Hello, Simon.”

The fear on Simon’s face when he reappeared told Five that these ghosts definitely had unfinished business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Klaus! Poor Misfits! On the upside, Ben and Klaus are back together!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Umbrella kids and Misfits are faced with a community centre full of killer ghosts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 8K + chapter? What was I thinking?
> 
> Please check the tags - I had to update a few because it got a little dark in some spots.

Klaus thought he’d been doing pretty well, all things considered. Getting sober was never an easy task for him. Not only were there the physical effects of his stomach trying to turn on itself, his body not making its mind up about whether it was hot or cold and the pounding headaches that left him so dizzy he became nauseous, there was also that other side effect. 

The ghosts. 

At the Academy, the ghosts were fairly limited. The spirits of those that he and his siblings had killed on missions would visit, but they couldn’t stay, instead being drawn back to the locations where they felt strong connections to. Usually that meant the place where their life ended. 

This community centre was something else. Klaus felt like he did whenever he woke up in hospital after an overdose and consequently, a forced withdrawal. There were ghosts _everywhere_. So many people had died at the site, and not easy deaths. Painful, gory, horrific deaths. Deaths that the ghosts were having trouble accepting. 

He was trying to block out the shouting and screaming and the blood and the deformities. He was trying. 

What was hard to block out was _her_. Klaus didn’t know her name, but she knew his. She knew Simon and Nathan and Curtis and Kelly and Alisha. She didn’t scream, no, she didn’t need to.

She’d first appeared when Klaus hid in the storeroom on the morning after their big night out. Nathan had thought that he found Klaus sitting alone. 

She was kind at first. She sat with him, quietly, asking him if he was alright in a soothing voice.

_I know what it’s like to be surrounded by people but feel alone._

_You can talk to me if you need to. I’m a good listener._

Klaus almost took her up on her offer. He hated talking about his feelings, another by-product of his fabulous upbringing, but surely it wouldn’t matter with a ghost, especially one that was offering.

They were interrupted when Nathan pulled up the roller door. She got up and sat in the corner, listening but staying silent.

After that, she’d pop in here and there, offering support. She was so nice, not like the other ghosts like those cheerleaders who looked like they’d been attacked by zombies. Those ones were straight out of a Hollywood horror film. 

So when Klaus couldn’t sleep that night he checked that Nathan was asleep before going for a walk. He found her on the picnic table. She patted the spot next to her, her slim legs neatly crossed. He sat down.

And he talked. 

He told her about the Umbrella Academy, about the ghosts, about Vietnam, about Dave. 

She listened. 

Afterwards, he felt _lighter_. He felt tired in a peaceful way that he hadn’t felt for years, if he was being honest. 

_Thank you for telling me Klaus. Do you feel better?_

Klaus nodded. 

_Can you do something for me now? Something to make me feel better?_

Klaus should have known it was too good to be true.

She told him about what had happened to her boyfriend. The first probation worker. About the storm and how it wasn’t his fault that he went crazy. 

About how Kelly had killed him with a paint tin and the others had helped to hide the body.

Klaus stood up. He needed to leave, to get away. She wasn’t different at all. In fact, she was worse. She’d tricked him, pretending like she cared about him only to try and get him to take vengeance after she had failed. 

She followed him back up to the mezzanine and told him about what had happened with Simon. 

She begged him to make them pay for what they had done. 

He didn’t sleep again that night.

She was still there when Nathan woke up.

_He doesn’t understand you. He pretends like he does, but he’s just using you._

She was there when he joined the others downstairs.

_He’s a murderer. They all are. They killed me._

She was there when Klaus cried in Ben’s lap.

_How many times will he forgive you before he realises that you aren’t worth it? That you’ll just hurt him again like you always do? How do you think he felt watching you waste your life away when all he wanted was to be alive?_

Sharing his secrets with her had been a big mistake. 

The joy of making up with Ben had almost been enough to divert her voice from his mind, until they reached the hall for the family meeting. 

Nathan found out that he was Klaus’ brother.

_How long until you disappoint him like you’ve disappointed all the others?_

Klaus gritted his teeth. It’s not true, it’s not true. She stood behind Klaus and leaned into his ear. 

_Oh but Klaus, it is true. You know it’s true. Who out of your siblings have you not let down? Diego just wants you to stay sober, but you’ve been clean for two days and you’re still thinking about getting high. I can see you scratching your palms. You’re an addict, you’ll never change._

_What about poor Vanya? You should have stood up for her, you should have been there for her? And Ben, those things you said to him after everything he has done for you. He hasn’t forgiven you, you can see it in his eyes._

_Five doesn’t need you, you could overdose tomorrow and he wouldn’t even notice. Wouldn’t Allison’s life be easier if she didn’t have to worry about her junkie brother ruining her reputation?_

Luther burst into the room. He dumped the drugs on Klaus’ lap.

_Why would they believe you? What have you done to ever earn their trust? ___

__It’s not true, it’s not true, she’s just trying to get to you._ _

__Klaus stood up and challenged Luther. She was wrong, she was . ._ _

___Jealous? Why would anyone be jealous of a junkie?_ _ _

__Deep down, Klaus knew Luther didn’t mean it literally. He didn’t mean it the way that it came out, but that belief was slipping so deep that Klaus couldn’t reach it. All he could hear was her._ _

___See, he’d rather kill himself if he was like you. That’s what they would prefer. /i >_ _ _

___Klaus clamped his hands over his ears, backing into the wall. He shook his head._ _ _

____No one could love you._ _ _ _

___Klaus’ hand clutched the dog tags around his neck before clamping back over his ears. The woman laughed, chilling and low._ _ _

____He didn’t love you. That’s why he never came back._ _ _ _

___Klaus was sobbing, dragging short burning breaths through his lungs. Someone touched him. He flinched back, hitting the wall before sliding to the floor and pressing his forehead to his knees. He jammed his eyes shut, hands over his ears._ _ _

___Why didn’t Dave come back? If he loved him, why wouldn’t he come back to see him? When he died and met the little girl and went to the house, he should have been there, but he wasn’t, he wasn’t waiting for him._ _ _

___The ghost was right._ _ _

___ _

___This was _bad_. Ben had seen Klaus mid-panic attack before. He could be set off by something as simple as walking into a corridor that was too narrow or crowded or by waking up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, screaming to be let out. _ _ _

___Sometimes he would come back from the panic attack quickly, shaking it off with an inappropriate joke. Other times it could take an hour of Ben talking softly to him, trying to ground him back to the present._ _ _

___He’d never seen Klaus quite like this. Vanya tried to gently pry his hands away from his ears, but they were pushed too tightly against his head. Ben placed a hand on his back, but all it did was startly Klaus into scrambling away._ _ _

___Then things got worse._ _ _

___His hands glowed blue._ _ _

___Ben exchanged a look of terror with Vanya. Five flashed beside her._ _ _

___“This is bad, this is very bad,” Ben murmured. He shook Klaus, but his only reaction was to cry out louder and curl further in on himself. Ben couldn’t even make out what he was saying._ _ _

___“I don’t think he’s in control at all,” Ben said, rubbing Klaus’ back as if it could make a difference. He could feel Klaus’ heart pounding through his ribs._ _ _

___The sudden lack of light alerted the trio to the presence of Luther. Ben glared up at him, satisfied to see that at least his biggest brother looked distraught._ _ _

___“I didn’t mean . . . I shouldn’t have said . . . not what I meant . . .”_ _ _

___“Luther!” Diego called out desperately. “Left!”_ _ _

___The huge ghost with white eyes launched himself at Luther with the energy of a beast attacking prey. Luther hit the ground hard, making the floorboards tremble._ _ _

___“Vanya! Get out of here!” Five yelled, pushing their sister away._ _ _

___“I’m not leaving you!” she said. Five looked at her with determination. She backed away, holding her arms out in defence._ _ _

___“No, don’t you dare, Five, NO!”_ _ _

___He launched himself at her, wrapping her in a fierce hug before they both disappeared with a flash._ _ _

___ _

___Vanya landed hard on her hip. She looked up to see Five already swinging a chair into a ghost lady who had cornered Simon near the main doors. She flew into the support pylon._ _ _

___Five turned frantically back to Vanya._ _ _

___“Get him and take the others! Get them out of here!”_ _ _

___Vanya hesitated. She didn’t want to leave her brothers and sister, not again, not when they needed help, but Five was right. They couldn’t fight with the others in the way._ _ _

___Her siblings needed a clear battle field. She would do her job._ _ _

___“Simon!” she called, grabbing the terrified boy by the wrist and tugging him along. “We have to get out of here!”_ _ _

___Thankfully, he came without question, eyes watching the ghost woman getting back up from where Five had sent her slamming into the pylon. Three figures were already running for the same door Vanya was aiming for. It flew open like an automatic door. The other three scrambled through. Vanya tugged Simon along, escaping the hall for the darkly lit corridor. She slammed the door shut behind her._ _ _

___“Are we safe?” Curtis panted, eyes wide. “Can they get to us? They can’t go through walls can they? Can they go through walls?”_ _ _

___Vanya shook her head. “I think they’re solid. When they hit Luther - I think they’re corporeal.”_ _ _

___“Cor-por what?” Alisha asked. Kelly shushed her, looking around in desperation._ _ _

___“Where’s Nathan?”_ _ _

___Everyone looked around the group, checking. No Nathan._ _ _

___“I dunno!” Simon said desperately, pushing his hands through his hair and messing up his smooth fringe. “He was right next to me when Luther came in, then everything happened, then he - you don’t think he’s still in there?”_ _ _

___“I think I saw him run into that kitchen thing,” Alisha said, looking up at Kelly._ _ _

___“Shit!” Kelly cursed, slapping her hands against the door. She pressed up against the glass, searching for their missing friend._ _ _

___Vanya had seen Nathan’s fighting skills the first day that she met him._ _ _

___He was in trouble._ _ _

___ _

___Ben was kneeling in front of his brother, trying desperately to get through to him. The blue glow of his hands was getting brighter, starting to creep up his bony wrists. Ben looked over his shoulder. A few metres away, Diego was fighting off the ghost of a boy wearing a baseball cap, drenched in dark red blood. Diego blocked a punch with one arm to land one with his other, wincing at the squelching sound it made as his fist connected with the ghost’s mangled face. The ghost staggered back before letting out a yell and swinging again at Diego. Ben saw the flash of a knife before Diego swung around and landed it in the ghost-boy’s chest._ _ _

___The ghost looked down at the embedded knife, then back up at Diego. He pulled the knife out of his chest and threw it at Diego without any finesse. His brother ducked it easily._ _ _

___“How are we going to kill these things?” Diego yelled out to his siblings, not looking away from the ghost._ _ _

___“Ben! We have to get him to stop!” Five yelled, delivering a sharp front kick to a cheerleader’s stomach. Part of her face looked like it had been chewed off._ _ _

___Ben had learned his time on the other side that most ghosts retained how they looked when they died when they crossed into the In Between where the ghosts resided. This had been horrible for Ben who had died in one of the most gruesome ways possible, but for Klaus’ sake, he tried hard to change his appearance, managing it slowly but finally looking like he would, had he still been alive._ _ _

___He looked around the hall at the ghosts that were chasing his siblings. Crushed skulls, stab wounds, one girl in a cardigan and plain skirt looked like she had been impaled. What the hell had been happening in this community centre to have ghosts like this?_ _ _

___“Allison!”_ _ _

___Luther threw the angry ghost he had been battling with into the wall opposite the main doors with a hideous thump. The bricks cracked on impact. Another cheerleader with an eye missing, leaving only a sickening mess, had Allison in a headlock. In a move Ben had seen her use many times before, Allison flipped the ghost over her back, slamming her on the floor. She dusted off her hands as Luther skidded to a stop, raising an eyebrow. He sheepishly gave her a curt nod before picking up the dazed ghost and throwing her into the glass of the main doors._ _ _

___The angry ghost had gotten back up and was storming back towards the group. With a flash, Five disappeared, then reappeared above, dropping a sandwich toaster on his head._ _ _

___A small blue light appeared to Ben’s left, humming as it grew into an eerie glow. Another appeared next to Luther who jumped back, ready to fight. A third light appeared behind Diego, corralling One, Two and Five into a circle._ _ _

___“Ben! We need to get him to stop!” Five cried out. His hair was dark with sweat, not its usual neatly combed style. They were getting tired against an enemy that couldn’t go down._ _ _

___Ben looked down at Klaus who was still holding his hands over his ears, tears streaking down his face. His lips were moving but Ben couldn’t catch the phrase that he was repeating over and over._ _ _

___Ben crouched in front of his brother, shaking him roughly. Klaus scrambled away from him, his eyes still jammed shut. Ben backed away quickly, not wanting to further agitate his brother._ _ _

___“Klaus, you need to listen to me! You have to let go. You have to stop.”_ _ _

___Allison left her other brothers to fight the forming ghosts, rushing over to Klaus. She bent down on a knee, out of breath._ _ _

___“Klaus, I heard a rumour that you calmed down.”_ _ _

___Ben felt the wash of energy that usually accompanied Number Three’s powers. The effect was usually immediate, but Klaus’ hands were still glowing, his head still buried in his knees._ _ _

___Allison repeated herself, louder._ _ _

___“He can’t hear you,” Ben said, his voice cracking._ _ _

___The first of the new ghosts appeared, a waif-like girl with blood dripping from her mouth._ _ _

___“Arrrggghghhhgghgh!”_ _ _

___The siblings craned their necks to see Nathan dashing backwards and forwards past the servery window in the kitchenette, waving a cleaver at an old lady ghost only to immediately run the other way when she retaliated._ _ _

___Five groaned._ _ _

___“For the love of -”_ _ _

___Five flashed away, leaving Diego to face off against the still-forming ghost of what looked to be a boy in an orange jumpsuit with a gunshot wound to the head. He had a horrible haircut._ _ _

___The small girl smiled hungrily at Luther, blood staining her teeth._ _ _

___“You’ll keep me fed for weeks,” she said in a voice that echoed hauntingly. The tiny ghost was dwarfed by One’s huge body. Luther adjusted his grip on the metal table leg, circling around so that his back was to Ben and Klaus. The ghost tilted her head, looking up at him with haunted eyes._ _ _

___“Do I know you?” she mused, narrowing her eyes. She tilted her head back. “I guess not. I would remember big strong arms like those.”_ _ _

___“Is she _flirting_ with him?” Allison shrilled. She picked up a chair that had been discarded on the floor, murder in her eyes. _ _ _

___Luther took a swing which the girl ducked nimbly. She flew at him, mouth open as if she was going to bite him. Luther couldn’t turn away in time._ _ _

___Allison appeared on Luther’s unshielded side, swinging the chair into her head. The ghost staggered back._ _ _

___Allison drew the chair back like a baseball player waiting for the pitcher. The girl sniggered._ _ _

___“Put it away. I’m looking for Kelly anyway,” she drawled, expression souring at Kelly’s name._ _ _

___Luther took the opportunity to smash his table leg into her side, sending her flying across the room. She hit the wall with a loud thud._ _ _

___ _

___Nathan landed with a flash and a thud. He rolled over, rubbing his arse._ _ _

___“You could have warned me about the landing!” he complained, looking up at Five._ _ _

___The little shit flashed him the finger._ _ _

___Before he could return the favour, a sharp slap stung the back of his head._ _ _

___“You fooking wanker!”_ _ _

___Alisha laughed, covering her mouth. Nathan scowled._ _ _

___“Ow! What was that for?” He sat on the ground, long legs outstretched until Simon and Vanya helped him up._ _ _

___“What the fuck, you have powers like us?” Alisha asked, hands on hips._ _ _

___Five scoffed. “Trust me, our powers are nothing like yours.”_ _ _

___Alisha rolled her eyes, looking at Curtis muttering _can you believe this wanker_ under her breath. Nathan giggled. Simon glowered at him, then started explaining._ _ _

___“Their powers aren’t like ours, they aren’t from the storm -”_ _ _

___“We haven’t got time! How are there so many ghosts here?” Five interrupted, already pacing with his hands behind his back._ _ _

___Kelly exchanged a look with the others._ _ _

___“Answer the question!” Five snapped, clapping his hands._ _ _

___“Oright! The lady with the fringe and the big guy are our probation workers.” She tugged at the end of her ponytail, looking anywhere but at Five. “We kinda accidentally killed ‘em so they might be a bit pissed off at us.”_ _ _

___“That’s putting it lightly,” Nathan interjected. Kelly flipped him off. Why was she so angry at him today?_ _ _

___Nathan wandered over to the vending machine and fished around in the space at the bottom where the food came out. His hand touched something smooth and cold._ _ _

___Grinning, he pulled out a can of lemonade. Curtis looked like he was in some sort of pain the way he looked at Nathan._ _ _

___“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked. He had his hands on his head. Nathan knew he only did that to show off his muscles. Prick._ _ _

___“I’m thirsty,” he said, cracking open the can. He held it up to Curtis. “Cheers!”._ _ _

___Five rolled his eyes. Nathan thought he heard him mutter _of course they’re fucking related_. He turned back to Kelly, expectantly. She stared at Nathan in disbelief, then rolled her eyes and continued. _ _ _

___“The kid with the hat, he was one of us but only for a day before that big probation worker killed him. I dunno about the others.”_ _ _

___A cheerleader thumped against the glass door, making everyone jump. She pressed her bloody cheek up to the glass. Alisha gagged._ _ _

___“When did we get cheerleaders?” Nathan asked Curtis, who ignored him in favour of looking really shit scared._ _ _

___“What about her?” Five asked. The others all shook their heads, shrugging._ _ _

___Nathan hadn’t noticed the small girl slink in through the front doors of the building until Alisha started screaming. The girl had blood dripping from her teeth, licking her lips as she crept forward. Kelly backed up as the ghost eyed her carefully._ _ _

___“He was mine,” she said, stalking closer. Her icy blue eyes narrowed. “You took him from me. You stole my boyfriend.”_ _ _

___Nathan let out a whistle. “Oooh, Kel-ly! You slag!”_ _ _

___Curtis punched him hard in the back. Nathan cried out, stepping away from him with a pout._ _ _

___Kelly stepped forward puffed her chest out._ _ _

___“I didn’t take no-one’s boyfriend, you fucking slag.”_ _ _

___Alisha groaned next to her._ _ _

___“Don’t antagonise the ghost, Kelly,” she warned, clutching Kelly’s arm._ _ _

___Five pushed them both back behind him. They didn’t have much space, boxed in by the narrow corridor, the only escape was the doors around the corner. Alisha had obviously had the same thought and ran around the back, dragging Curtis with her. Nathan could hear them wrestling with the bolts that kept the doors locked after hours._ _ _

___The girl let out a cry like a cheetah and leapt at Five._ _ _

___Nathan had always thought that the others’ powers were pretty shit (not that he wasn’t jealous that he didn’t have his own, still), but compared to these other guys he could see that they were really shit. That other guy had been able to bend that knife’s direction in mid air, and the little one could flash all over the place, and there was no way that the big gorilla guy was just hitting the steroids. Plus, they actually seemed to be able to fight properly._ _ _

___For a small boy, that Five could throw down. He flashed into position behind the girl and round-house kicked her in the face, sending her flying towards the group. Nathan screamed as the group split in half, dodging the flying zombie girl who skidded to a stop near where Alisha and Curtis were frantically unlocking the doors. They flattened themselves against the door, Alisha letting out a scream that didn’t sound half as girly as Nathan’s had._ _ _

___The zombie girl got up slowly, but not showing any more injury from Five’s arse kicking._ _ _

___Nathan turned around as the corridor flashed blue. Five was gone._ _ _

___“Where did the little fucker go? Don’t tell me he left us?” he asked, turning to Vanya. She shook her head._ _ _

___Kelly pushed her aside, fists curled as she marched forward._ _ _

___“Alisha, get the door. This bitch was just leaving.”_ _ _

___Alisha gaped at Kelly. Even though he knew the timing was all sorts of inappropriate, he had to admit, he was turned on._ _ _

___The girl smiled at Kelly, licking her lips. Blood bubbled down her chin._ _ _

___“Oh, now that’s just gross,” Nathan called out, suddenly a bit less in the mood, but not entirely not in the mood, either._ _ _

___The girl lunged at Kelly, teeth gnashing like a rabid dog. Kelly leaned as far back as she could, trying to stay away from her mouth and those teeth._ _ _

___“He loved me! He was going to bring me back until you came along, you stupid slut!”_ _ _

___Nathan noticed a flash of blue out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t look away._ _ _

___Kelly held the girl out in front at arms distance. The girl was still trying to bite her._ _ _

___In a classic Kelly move, she hit her with a sharp headbutt. The girl staggered back unsteadily._ _ _

___Five swung in with a cricket bat, smashing her out the door. Kelly stepped up to the doorway, yelling out after the girl._ _ _

___“Don’t. Call me. A slut.”_ _ _

___Kelly slammed the door, bolting it closed. Five gave her an impressed nod, a small smirk on his lips._ _ _

___“Looks like you’re popular,” he mused._ _ _

___Kelly shook her head. “I told ya, I ain’t ever seen that chick in my life.”_ _ _

___Five rubbed his chin, looking more like an old man playing chess than a kid._ _ _

___“Maybe you haven’t seen her _yet_. Klaus said something about some of the ghosts seeming out of place. I think that us being out of timeline has done something to Klaus’ powers. He’s drawing ghosts that haven’t even died yet.” _ _ _

___Hang on, Klaus had powers?_ _ _

____Oh, the ghosts!_ _ _ _

___What a horrible power! Suddenly Nathan wasn’t so sad about not having one._ _ _

___“That still doesn’t explain why there are so many of them,” Vanya added, standing next to Nathan. Simon was watching the ghost of a girl with dark wavy hair wearing an orange jumpsuit, blood staining her stomach who was knocking on the glass of the main hall._ _ _

___“Isn’t this meant to be a community centre? Why are there so many dead people?”_ _ _

___“Well, a lot of freaky shit happens. See, there was this storm . . .”_ _ _

___Kelly was interrupted by the first probation worker smashing his fist through the glass of the back door._ _ _

___“Back in the hall!” Five yelled._ _ _

___ _

___That was a good plan, apart from the fact that Nathan and Vanya were trapped on the wrong side of the probation worker._ _ _

___ _

___Simon was running after Five when he saw the flash of that unmistakable curly hair disappear into the changerooms. He looked into the hall to see Alisha swinging a fire hydrant at a fit looking girl with a nastly looking stomach wound. His heart sunk._ _ _

___“Simon! Come back!” Kelly called. He couldn’t, not until he’d made sure. He hoped he was wrong._ _ _

___He stepped into the changerooms. Standing in front of the mirror fluffing her hair was Alisha, but not as Simon knew her._ _ _

___She was tinged blue like the others, looking exactly like the other Alisha except for the slit across her throat, blood coating her neck and chest in dribbling lines. She seemed to ignore it in favour of applying lip gloss that was also a ghostly blue._ _ _

___“Simon,” she said, finally noticing him. “Where have you been?”_ _ _

___She turned around. Simon noticed that she looked genuinely happy to see him, not at all like the scowl she usually threw at him. Her smile was sweet, happy. What he would do to have a girl smile at him like that. An alive girl._ _ _

___She walked up to him, adjusting the collar on his shirt. Simon stood stiffly, backing up against the lockers._ _ _

___“Why are you so tense?” she asked, smoothing his shirt across his chest._ _ _

___Alisha couldn’t see her own ghost, especially not when she was so young and had her throat slit. Simon couldn’t imagine how it would feel knowing how and when you would die, especially when it looked like it wouldn’t be far away._ _ _

___He looked down at Alisha and smiled. She smiled brightly back, the hole in her neck gaping at the movement._ _ _

___He reached over her shoulder and threw open the locker door behind her, shoving her in. She screamed as he tried to push her arms into the small space, using his shoulder to push the door against her._ _ _

___“Simon! It’s me! What are you doing?” she screamed as he tried to wedge her foot into the locker with his own foot. Finally, it came free and he slammed the door closed. Holding it with one arm, he quickly reached across and grabbed the locker directly opposite, pulling the whole thing down until it jammed against the other locker door, pushing against it on an angle._ _ _

___“Simon! I love you! Simon!”_ _ _

___Simon took a deep breath. He left to join the others in the main hall._ _ _

___ _

___Nathan backed down the corridor, holding onto Vanya. He liked to think he was brave enough that he wouldn’t use her as a human shield, but he wasn’t sure that he was._ _ _

___“Nathan, look out!”_ _ _

___A feral cat with blood matted through its fur came hurtling out of the changerooms, running towards them. The probation worker stood between them._ _ _

___“Holy shit, it’s a ghost cat!” Nathan squealed, definitely hiding behind Vanya._ _ _

___The cat between the legs of the probation worker, tripping him over. He hit the ground hard as the cat let out a yell and ran at Vanya and Nathan._ _ _

___Nathan panicked. He threw his can of lemonade at the bloody feline. The can missed, letting the cat escape up the corridor._ _ _

___He didn’t see the punch coming. He fell back, jarring his wrists on the hard lino._ _ _

___“Nathan!” Vanya cried out. Klaus looked up._ _ _

___The ghost of a girl with a look of contempt that could put Curtis to shame leered over him, pointing a finger into his chest._ _ _

___“You’re the shit head who got me killed.”_ _ _

___He scrambled back, searching for some kind of weapon. He tried to get to his feet, but his damned long limbs were refusing to cooperate._ _ _

___“I’m sorry, I don’t remember you - I’m sorry if I said I would call, but usually girls only fuck me because they’re drunk -”_ _ _

___For a ghost, she had a good punch. Nathan spat onto the floor, noticing that there were dark drops splattered over the lino._ _ _

___She stepped between his outstretched legs and grabbed Nathan by the jacket, pulling him towards her with inhuman strength._ _ _

___“You got me killed.” She sounded _pissed_._ _ _

___“I don’t, I don’t remember . . .”_ _ _

___“You drew the attention of a gunman, then jumped out of the way and let me get shot instead.”_ _ _

___Nathan, bit his lip thoughtfully, looking to the side._ _ _

___“I have to admit, that does sound a bit like something I’d do.”_ _ _

___“And you did a shit on my bed,” she said with a tone of indignation that told Nathan that even death had not been enough for her to get over it._ _ _

___“Again, does sound like something I’d do.”_ _ _

___In one swift move she lifted him to his feet and slammed his head sideways into the wall. Pain shot through Nathan’s skull._ _ _

___“I had to get a new bed!” she said through gritted teeth._ _ _

___“Put him down.”_ _ _

___Nathan didn’t recognise the voice, but he saw the ghost girl look over his shoulder. She let go, landing him flat on his back. He let out a grunt, gasping for air. His head was stinging. Nathan tilted his head back, stretching to see who had saved him from the ghost’s grip._ _ _

____Vanya?_ _ _ _

___But, she didn’t look like Vanya. Her eyes were white. She looked, well not like the mousy girl who Simon was pining after. She looked _powerful_._ _ _

___Nathan felt the ground start to vibrate as a breeze picked up through the corridor. Bits of broken glass brushed past him, swept up in what soon became a howling wind. Nathan rolled over, scooting along the lino on his arse until he backed up against the wall, closer to Vanya than to the crazy ghost who he would offend some time in the future._ _ _

___Vanya raised her hands, controlling the wind that was pushing the ghosts back, halting their advance down the corridor._ _ _

___“Get out of here!” she cried._ _ _

___Nathan tried to push against the wall out of his spot but the wind was too strong. Vanya had whipped up a right storm. Bits of vending machine and door frame were flying around in a mini cyclone._ _ _

___Strong hands hooked under his armpits and yanked. Nathan tried to get his feet under him but his rescuer seemed content to drag him. They passed the mini storm girl herself._ _ _

___“Vanya! C’mon!”_ _ _

___So Luther was his saviour._ _ _

___“This doesn’t mean I like you!” Nathan called out, going limp and allowing himself to be dragged along._ _ _

___Vanya waved her hands like a conductor finishing a symphony then pushed. A wave of energy washed down the corridor, knocking the ghosts over like some sort of Mexican wave. Luther threw Nathan into the hall before reaching back and grabbing Vanya, hauling her in too._ _ _

___ _

___Five was tiring, he knew it. The headaches had started already, his body felt like it had been stretched like pizza dough. He was starting to get to the limit of his powers. He was used to killing people that actually, y’know, _died_._ _ _

___He threw a bat to Luther who had come back into the main hall after pulling Vanya back in. Luther inspected the weird shaped bat, turning it over in his hands. It was long and straight, flat on one side while ridged on the other. Five liked the one he had in his own hands. They were heavier than baseball bats, even though he had no idea what sport they were for._ _ _

___“Raided the sports storeroom,” he said, pulling a hockey stick out of the back of his pants which he threw to Allison._ _ _

___Luther stood with his weapons raised, facing outwards towards the main doors, the probation kids behind him. Diego stood next to him, not willing to miss out on the action. He was holding one of his small throwing knives. Five could tell that those knives were going to do shit against ghosts._ _ _

___The ghosts had gathered around the group of his siblings and the probation kids, outnumbering them three to one._ _ _

___“Fuck, this isn’t working!”_ _ _

___The only one who could stop this was Klaus._ _ _

___“Ben! Tell me some good news!”_ _ _

___Five looked behind him to where his brother was sitting on the floor, knees bent. He wasn’t crouched over anymore, but he was talking frantically with Ben, shaking out his hands that were still glowing blue like he was trying to get the glow off them. His eyeliner was smudged all over his face._ _ _

___“We’re working on it!”_ _ _

___“I can’t stop it!” Five heard Klaus gasp. “I can’t control it!”_ _ _

___It had to be done._ _ _

___Five approached his sobbing brother. Ben looked up, eyeing the bat in his hands._ _ _

___“What are you doing?” he asked slowly. Five swore he could hear a growl._ _ _

___“Move out of the way Ben.”_ _ _

___“You can’t, Five, you can’t.” Ben stood up, shielding Klaus who was still a mess on the floor._ _ _

___“It’s OK, I’m just going to knock him out. You said he can’t control it.”_ _ _

___Five didn’t need to wait for Ben to let him. He was going to do this anyway. He just didn’t fancy being pulled apart by a tentacle monster from another dimension._ _ _

___To his surprise, Ben’s head dropped as he stepped aside._ _ _

___Klaus started sobbing louder. He hung his head._ _ _

___“Do it,” he sniffed, rubbing his eyes. “Please, just do it. I can’t listen to them anymore.” He looked up at Five with those soulful green eyes._ _ _

___“She’s right, you’d be better off without me.”_ _ _

____Klaus thought he was going to kill him?_ _ _ _

___Five should have known better than to hesitate._ _ _

___The force was like a truck hitting him in the side. He rolled over with the hit, too winded to jump out of the way. He scrambled the right way up until he was on his knees, elbows on the ground while he tried to catch his breath long enough to fight off whatever had knocked him down._ _ _

___The ghost with the paint-stained baseball cap and jumpsuit had Ben pinned on his back. His legs were struggling desperately as he tried to push back a pole that was pressed to his throat. Five dragged himself forward, knees scraping against the polished wood floor._ _ _

___The _noise_ \- did these ghosts ever shut up? _ _ _

___“Ben!”_ _ _

___Five’s head turned (what was that pain in his neck?) and saw Klaus upright, reaching a blue glowing hand towards their brother. A thick dark arm was wound around his chest. The probation worker had him. Klaus struggled, blue hand grappling frantically to try and pull it away, writhing like a cut snake._ _ _

___“Klaus!” Five called desperately. He pulled himself to his feet. He had to get to his brother, he had to help him. In the corner of his vision, he saw Ben still fighting off the guy in the orange jumpsuit._ _ _

___“I can’t hold them in much longer!” Ben yelled, face straining and red._ _ _

___Hang on, hold them _in_ , not hold them _off_ . . ._ _ _

___Oh shit._ _ _

___Klaus wriggled free and dropped to the ground like a brick._ _ _

___“Klaus, run!”_ _ _

___Whether he heard him or not, his brother was already moving, crawling away from the probation worker._ _ _

___“Tony! Stop him!”_ _ _

___The other probation worker, the woman, was running towards Klaus. Five dropped his shoulder and charged at her. She didn’t see him until he was just about to barrel into her from the side. They fell to the ground, Five cursing as his foot twisted under him._ _ _

___The big, angry probation worker had caught Klaus, holding him with one hand fisted into his hair, the other around his neck as he dragged him out to the corridor. Klaus’ blue glowing hands clawed at the man’s vice grip._ _ _

___A noise, a single screech from a beast not of this Earth echoed through the hall. The ghosts fell silent for the first time since the attack began._ _ _

___Five knew that sound._ _ _

___“EVERYONE GET OUT!”_ _ _

___Ben’s terror-filled scream chilled Five to the bone._ _ _

___Suddenly, everyone was yelling. A crash followed by the ground shaking like an earthquake told Five it was already too late._ _ _

___A thick tentacle, glossy with mucus, burst forth from Ben’s chest, knocking the ghost that had him pinned into the roof like a rag doll._ _ _

___Five couldn’t stop and watch. He had a job to do._ _ _

___Flash. He grabbed Vanya who was fighting off a cheerleader and dropped her in the kitchenette behind the bench. He was tired, he couldn’t go any further if he was going to complete the other jumps. He had to grab the bench on landing, his ankle refusing to take his weight._ _ _

___“Five! Be care-”_ _ _

___Flash. He found Allison, Diego, both running from a new tentacle that stretched after them, chasing them across the hall. He dropped them next to Vanya, ignoring Diego’s protests._ _ _

___Flash. Luther, hitting away a tentacle with the weird sports bat. He was still swinging when Five dumped him on top of Diego._ _ _

___“Five!” Luther said, grabbing his arm. “Stop, you can’t go back -”_ _ _

___Flash. Curtis. Flash. Alisha, armed with a fire hydrant. Flash. Simon. Flash. Kelly and Nathan, one of them screaming the entire way._ _ _

___Five community service workers. Four of his six siblings._ _ _

___“What the _fuck_ is that?” Alisha asked with her usual eloquence, pointing in the direction of Number Six. _ _ _

___“Ben can call on eldritch monsters from another dimension. That’s his power,” Five explained. He exchanged a look with his other siblings. Ben wasn’t much older than his body was at the moment when it all went wrong. Everyone knew the risk he was taking letting the monsters out._ _ _

___“They took Klaus,” he said, noticing the shake in his voice. Sweat was dripping down his back as he tried to stand as normally as possible, gripping the kitchen bench. The community service kids were watching Ben’s eldritch monster fight off the ghosts with expressions ranging from awe on Nathan’s face to downright terror on Curtis’._ _ _

___“Five! You can’t, you’re exhausted,” Vanya said desperately, holding him around the shoulders. Five shrugged her off._ _ _

___He pushed against the fabric of space, searching for the gap in the threads to tear apart._ _ _

___He couldn’t find them._ _ _

___He tried again, pushing roughly this time._ _ _

___Five let out an anguished cry. The last time this had happened, the last time . ._ _ _

___Vanya wrapped her arm around Five’s shoulders, taking his weight. He let her, sinking to the floor._ _ _

___ _

___Nathan peered over the bench watching as a tentacle monster that was coming out of his brother’s brother’s chest flung ghosts around the room. How did a monster so big fit inside Ben’s tiny chest? It was easily filling the whole hall._ _ _

___There was nothing for it._ _ _

___“Nathan! What are you doing?” Kelly yelled, pulling him back down by the back of his jeans. Nathan stepped out of her reach and gave her a wink._ _ _

___“Not being a selfish twat for once.”_ _ _

___He vaulted the bench, ignoring the other’s calls as he ran into the tentacle monster’s arena._ _ _

___He’d always been good at dodgeball in school. He was quick, he was fast, he was annoying enough to draw the other team’s attention only to duck out of the way just as the ball came hurtling towards him. Surely this was no different?_ _ _

___A tentacle held the poor boy in the orange jumpsuit with the hideous rat tail and mullet combo in its clutches. Nathan imagined how horrible it would be to be stuck with that hair style for all eternity._ _ _

___Another tentacle wrapped around his head and pulled it clean off._ _ _

___“Oh, for the love of . . .oh my _God_!” Nathan cried out. He looked back at the kitchenette. Kelly and Simon were motioning desperately for him to run back. It was only five metres. He could do it. _ _ _

___A tentacle slammed into the ground between them, shaking the whole hall. Nathan jumped, holding his arms in front of his face as if they would do anything to hold off the monster._ _ _

___“Nathan! Run!”_ _ _

___He ran._ _ _

___His nimble feet and windmilling arms helped him jump over the next tentacle. He ducked another that swung so close to his head he swore he felt the wetness of the mucus coating against his cheek. He dived out of the way of the next one, scrambling forward on hands and feet. He could hear the others yelling behind him._ _ _

___“Look out!”_ _ _

___Nathan turned around. A huge tentacle with two rows of suckers was descending towards him. He jumped to the side, flat out sprinting the last leg to the door._ _ _

___Once in the dark safety of the corridor, Nathan threw himself back against the wall, gasping. He hadn’t done that much exercise in a long time._ _ _

___He heard footsteps clang against the galvanised steel of the stairs leading up to the rooftop._ _ _

___“Let go!”_ _ _

___That was Klaus._ _ _

___Nathan pushed off the wall, taking the steps two at a time._ _ _

___ _

___Once at the top (he was going to give up smoking if he survived all this, his lungs were burning!), Nathan flung the door open, doubling over as he stepped on the rooftop, desperate to catch his breath._ _ _

___That first probation worker was holding Klaus, stretching his neck back by his hair. His hands were tied behind his back, but Nathan could still see the reflection of the blue glow. Sally, the one that was his girlfriend or fiance or whatever was standing next to him, looking smug. She started to walk forward._ _ _

___“Nathan. It’s been a while.”_ _ _

___Nathan rolled his eyes, planting his hands on his hips as he stood up straight._ _ _

___“Don’t . . . don’t give me that bullshit,” he panted. “Let my brother go.”_ _ _

___She smiled. Nathan had always thought she had a nice smile, a sweet smile, but now he saw it was twisted._ _ _

___“Why would I do that when he’s the only one who can bring us back into this world. We need to make you all pay for what you did to us.”_ _ _

___Nathan rolled his head on his neck, looking up at the night sky._ _ _

___“We’re sorry! It was an accident, and anyways, he started it!” Nathan pointed at the guy, Tony. “If he didn’t go all” Nathan waggled his hands next to his ears, “crazy and shit - no offence - then we wouldn’t have had to kill him, would we?”_ _ _

___He put his hands back on his hips, happy that he had made his point._ _ _

___“You have to pay. You all have to pay. Klaus is going to help us with that.”_ _ _

___Klaus shook his head as much as he could with the man gripping his hair._ _ _

___“Hey, do you think you could ease up a bit there mate?” Nathan pleaded, pointing at his struggling brother._ _ _

___“He’s had his chance. I asked him nicely.” Sally bent lower. Her long straight hair swung forward as she spoke into Klaus’ ear. “I asked him so many times.”_ _ _

___So she had been haunting him. The poor fucker._ _ _

___“He’s not gonna do it, so you’re just gonna have to live with it, I mean, die with it . . .you know what I mean!”_ _ _

___“No, we have a better idea.”_ _ _

___The churchy looking girl with the headband suddenly emerged from behind Nathan._ _ _

___“Like that wasn’t creepy at all,” he said, backing away from her. He scoffed. “Nice cardigan.”_ _ _

___She lunged at him, her cold hand closing around his throat as she pushed him back. He tried to resist, but she was too strong, forcing him to step backwards towards the edge of the rooftop. He tried to scream, but her hand was too tight around his throat. Her eyes were dark with hate, mouth twisted into a scowl. Maybe he met her in the future too?_ _ _

___Nathan’s stomach lurched as she held him just short of the edge of the rooftop. He twisted around to make the mistake of looking down. Such a mistake._ _ _

___“Help! Help!” he cried desperately, grabbing at her hand. It was like stone for all that he made a difference._ _ _

___“You’ve got a choice Klaus. Either you help us or he falls. What’s it going to be?”_ _ _

___God that woman was a bitch. Nathan felt less bad about dumping her body in the river._ _ _

___He twisted in the evil church girl’s grip. He couldn’t turn his head enough to see his brother, but he could hear his sobs._ _ _

___“Please, please don’t, please.”_ _ _

___“Is that a yes?”_ _ _

___The cold wind picked up, chilling Nathan to the bone. He was already shaking. This wasn’t going to end well._ _ _

___A bright blue glow, brighter than the ghosts before, caught the corner of Nathan’s vision. The grip around his neck loosen slightly. He turned to his left._ _ _

___The new ghost looked like a soldier. He was tall, dressed in army fatigues._ _ _

___Unlike the other ghosts, he wasn’t covered in blood._ _ _

___He stood tall, gun strapped to his straight back, strong arms curved as he approached the ghosts that held Klaus._ _ _

___“Let go of my boyfriend.”_ _ _

___Nathan pulled free of the churchy girl entirely, clapping his hands. Klaus couldn’t take his eyes off the new ghost, tears streaming freely down his cheeks. Tony still had his head pulled back._ _ _

___“Is this _Dave_?” Nathan squealed in delight. “You never said he was this fit!”_ _ _

___Dave frowned, eyes flickering towards Nathan for a second before staring down at the probation workers. He stepped forwards, blue fire in his eyes. Sally flinched, stepping back._ _ _

___“I’m going to give you a chance. That man you’re holding against his will has a special connection with the little girl up stairs. I’m more than happy to pass on to her on his behalf any wishes he may have about where you spend your eternity. Now, he’s too gentle a soul to ask for any of the more unpleasant options -” Dave leaned in, almost whispering in Sally’s ear._ _ _

___“However, I’m not feeling as compassionate right now, and it’s not like he’ll be there to hear what I tell her.”_ _ _

___The game was up. Sally scowled at Tony, who let go of Klaus. Sally pushed him forward with a shove. Hands still bound, he was falling face first into the ground._ _ _

___Dave lunged forward and caught him._ _ _

___Klaus looked up at Dave, eyes even brighter than the glow of his hands. Dave wrapped his strong arms around him. He scooped Klaus into his lap, brushing his hair out of his face. Nathan saw Klaus’ lips move. Dave laughed, deep and warm. He stroked Klaus’ cheek._ _ _

___Nathan smiled, watching his brother finally reunite with the man who held his heart._ _ _

___It felt like a punch in the back. Nathan stumbled forward from the shock. Who punched him? He thought foolishly of Kelly, but she never hit him _that_ hard._ _ _

___Then the pain started, radiating out from the middle of his chest, spreading rapidly through his upper body. It felt warm and chilled at the same time, then so chilled that it hurt._ _ _

___He looked down to see something pointed and metal sticking out of his chest. He gasped, but there was no air left in the world. Something wet gurgled in his throat, spilling out of his mouth. It tasted metallic._ _ _

___He looked at his brother. Klaus was screaming, desperately trying to wriggle from Dave’s lap. Dave held him back, his eyes fierce._ _ _

___A cheek pressed against his, so icy cold that it hurt. The church girl._ _ _

___She whispered in his ear, steady as the river he could hear flowing in the distance._ _ _

___“I didn’t have to be like this. I could have been so much more.”_ _ _

___ _

___He felt suddenly light, then his eyes slipped closed as he fell._ _ _

___ _

___Klaus struggled against Dave’s bear hug, but he was too strong. As soon as Klaus saw the knife sticking out from Nathan’s chest, his lover pulled his head away, shielding him from the sight. Still, he’d seen Nathan start to fall. He screamed silently into Dave’s chest, deep sobs shaking his whole body._ _ _

___Klaus felt the cold metal of Dave’s army knife slice through the binds on his wrists. He wriggled desperately, feeling the sting of the blade as it nicked his flesh. Dave hissed. His hands sprung free. He pushed Dave away, scrambling to the edge where only the murderous ghost stood._ _ _

___“No, no!” Klaus cried, his voice splitting. Dave grabbed him around the waist, hauling him back like a child. Klaus kicked out at him. Nathan would be OK, he had to be OK. If only Klaus could get to him._ _ _

___Dave cradled him in his lap, stroking the back of his neck._ _ _

___“Klaus, I need you to do something. Nathan needs you to do something.”_ _ _

___Klaus sobbed loudly, pressing his forehead into Dave’s shoulder. Dave took his glowing hands in one of his own._ _ _

___“There are still ghosts downstairs. You need to let me help you. You need to let go.”_ _ _

___Klaus shook his head, rubbing his forehead against Dave’s shoulder._ _ _

___“No, no, no, you can’t go, you can’t.”_ _ _

___Dave kissed his cheek._ _ _

___“I’ve found you now. I’m not going anywhere.”_ _ _

___He kissed Klaus’ hands._ _ _

___“Let go.”_ _ _

___Klaus felt Dave’s own power push against his. The glow in his hands faded. He looked up desperately at his love, looking into his kind, soft eyes._ _ _

___Dave smiled. As he began to fade, the world went suddenly bright and Klaus let it take him._ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dave!
> 
> P.S. Couldn't resist a little #Merlin Lamia action between Luther/Percival and Shannon/Lamia. One for the die hard Merlin fans who are still pining for a Season 6


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter - questions answered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading this. Thanks especially to @darkhaze20, @siriuspiggyback, @bluekato and @shiitokrystal for all the comments.

Too hot. He was too hot. 

Klaus tried to push away the heavy weight settled on his chest, but it wouldn’t move. He shifted his legs to try and wriggle away. It felt like treading water. 

He tried to turn on his side, feeling hotter the more he moved. A groan escaped from his throat sounding nothing like a sound he had ever made before. 

“Hey, shh, you’re okay,” a familiar voice soothed. 

“Hot,” he rasped. The word felt like knives slicing the inside of his throat. 

“Well, it’s your own fault. You were colder than a bloody ice lolly!”

The weight lifted off him. He welcomed the cool air against his sweaty skin. 

“C’mon now, no going back to sleep. Diego’s been banging on about how you need to drink something.” 

Klaus opened his eyes. He was met with another pair of eyes very close to his own that were all-too-familiar, green and clear, albeit with a few less creases in the corners. 

Nathan. It made sense. Ben had found Klaus soaking in the bath only minutes after he had died. Diego had come in to tell him to get down stairs for a serious family meeting an hour later to find Klaus freezing in the cold water, sobbing Ben’s name. It took Ben another year to work out how to hide his injuries in his ghost form. 

Once Klaus opened his eyes, Nathan stepped back, kneeling next to the bed, chin on his hands. Klaus lay on his side, watching his new ghost-brother. His face didn’t look too bad. He had a red mark on his cheek, but Klaus supposed that when he stood up there would still be the red stain over his chest, the hole through his body. 

“How are you feeling?” Nathan asked with a grin. Something tickled Klaus’ nose. He reached up to touch it, tracing it back to his eye. Of course, he was crying. 

It hit all at once. 

Nathan was dead. 

It was his fault. 

His ghosts had killed his brother. 

The grin slipped off Nathan’s face.

“Well that wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for.” His eyes darted over Klaus. It was a look Klaus had seen before in Ben while he was a ghost, wanting to comfort but not knowing how.

Klaus covered his face with his forearm. His body shook as he hid further into the pillow, wiping his tears with the cloth wrapped around his wrist. What was the point of his power if all it could do was hurt people? No matter what he did, everyone around him always suffered. 

“I left you looking after him for five minutes and look what you’ve done.”

That was Ben. Oh no, not Ben too? The Horror, he had unleashed the eldritch monster, just like the night he had died the first time around . . .

Klaus broke into new sobs, no longer able to hide the sound. 

A warm arm wrapped around his body. 

A warm arm. 

Klaus looked up. 

Ben, his loyal, kind, fierce Ben.

“You, you’re . . . you’re not dead?”

Ben frowned at him the way that Mom had when he’d been caught taking cookies off the tray but she’d let him get away with it anyway. 

“Not dead,” he said, holding Klaus’ hand in his own and lifting it to touch his cheek. Klaus choked out a laugh in disbelief. 

“So he gets the big reaction for not being dead, and I find out I’m fucking immortal and all I get is you crying like I hit your puppy with a car and a fucking slap in the face.”

Klaus’ eyes widened.

“You’re, you’re . . .”

Nathan stepped forward and flicked Klaus in the nose. 

“I’m immortal baby! I knew I had a power, I could feel it in my balls.”

Nathan gyrated to prove how sure he had been of his power. 

“You’re immortal?” Klaus whispered. He broke into a string of dry coughs, his throat burning, probably from all the screaming.

“C’mon, won’t someone be even a little bit excited?”

“Kelly looked pretty excited to me,” Ben said in a low voice, smirking secretly at Klaus with his back to Nathan. He handed his brother a cup of water which Klaus drank greedily and sat on the edge of the crash mat. Klaus realised they were in the store room he and Ben had shared the first night. 

Nathan huffed, rubbing his reddened cheek.

“I don’t know why she got so upset? It was a great gag!”

Ben raised his eyebrows, then looked back over his shoulder at Nathan.

“How is pretending to be dead while Kelly cried over you a good gag?”

“She was about to kiss me!” Nathan said excitedly. “She was leaning in and everything. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for her to finally set the bar low enough to hook up with me?”

Klaus smiled, letting out a small chuckled. Ben wordlessly topped up his water cup from a jug on the floor. Klaus sipped it gratefully.

Nathan dramatically rolled his eyes. “Shame about her stupid powers.”

Ben shook his head. “No, shame that you were counting your chickens before they hatched and couldn’t keep your perverted thoughts out of your head. Although, I think Five might be about to ask her to join the Umbrella Academy. She has an amazing right hook.”

Klaus laughed, choking on his water. Ben gave him a few slaps on the back. 

Nathan lay on the floor, propping himself up on his elbow. 

“So, that was Dave eh?”

Klaus’s expression softened as he thought of the feel of Dave’s lips on his cheek. He thought he’d never see him again. Ben watched him carefully. 

“Yeah.”

The three of them sat in silence. Klaus fiddled with the bandage around his wrist. He tried to remember the exact words his lover had said right before he sent the ghosts away. Did he say he would find him or wait for him? Did he mean he would wait in the weird black-and-white world with the infuriating little girl-God or was Klaus meant to look for him?

“I’ve gotta pee,” Klaus declared, pushing himself up on shaking arms. The soft crash mat was not easy to get off as it gave way to his attempts to find any stability. In the end, he just rolled off the end, letting Ben and Nathan stop him from hitting the ground too hard. They hauled him up, balancing him on his feet. Ben was reluctant to let Klaus stand fully on his own, keeping a hold of his bicep. 

“Are you going stand at the urinal and watch me?” Klaus asked. 

“Never bothered you for the last thirteen years I’ve been forced to watch things that I can’t ever unsee,” Ben replied, quick as a whip.

Nathan’s eyebrows arched.

“Just so we are clear, I am not related to your weird family.”

The trip to the toilet was more of a struggle than Klaus was willing to admit. He was wearing a plain t-shirt and baggy track pants that were too big on him and he accidentally dropped. He needed Ben to help him pull them up after trying to grab them himself brought on a dizzy spell. As embarrassing needing help had been, he figured it would be better than passing out with his pants around his ankles. Nathan had dutifully waited outside.

As Ben was holding Klaus steady so he could wash his hands, they heard Nathan’s choppy voice from the corridor. 

“Over my dead body! Well, y’know, over my not-dead body - whatever. You can fuck off back to your tree, gorilla-boy.”

Ben groaned. 

“Wait here,” he instructed through gritted teeth. He left Klaus holding onto the sink as he stormed out of the bathroom. 

Klaus looked at his face in the mirror. His skin was more washed out than usual in the fluorescent light. The bruising down the side of his face had shifted into yellows and greens with only hints of purple highlighting over his cheekbone and in the creases of his eye. His kohl eyeliner had been washed away with all the crying. His hair was an absolute mess. A shower would be a very good idea sometime in the near future when he could stand up on his own. He barely recognised himself with the baggy grey clothes and clear eyes. 

_”I don’t give a fuck want you want Luther. This isn’t about you, it’s about Klaus.”_

Klaus groaned, leaning over the sink. He was glad Ben had finally grown the balls to stand up to Luther, although over a decade as a helpless bystander watching but never being able to do anything probably had a lot to do with that. The last thing he wanted though was for his brothers to be fighting. 

“Straighten up, soldier.”

Klaus froze. He turned around too quickly, almost losing his balance. He grabbed the wall just in time. 

“Dave!”

He was even more beautiful than the image Klaus carried in his mind, like a cherished photograph in a pocket. His fond smile melted the chill that Klaus had barely been able to shake since the events of the night before. 

He looked so . . . whole. He wasn’t blue like the other ghosts. He looked as real as Ben had while he followed Klaus around. 

Klaus rushed towards him with energy he shouldn’t have had. He flung himself forwards, jumping into Dave’s arms. 

Dave caught him. 

Klaus clung on like a koala, burying his nose into his hair that still smelled like the lemongrass scented soap he’d buy from the village markets. 

Fuck, he was crying again. 

Klaus wiped at his eyes with his hand, jolting as he noticed the faint blue glow it emitted. 

“Shh, it’s okay babe,” Dave whispered, hugging Klaus closer into his body. “It’s just me.”

“How?” Klaus breathed into Dave’s ear. 

“I don’t know. Before, I couldn’t feel you but a few days ago I felt it, but by the time I got there you were gone. Then last night, I felt it again and I found you. I told you I wasn’t going anywhere. I meant it.”

Klaus slid down Dave’s body, leaving his strong arms wrapped around him to hold him up as he found his feet. They used to be almost the same height in Vietnam, but Klaus had done a bit more growing after he turned eighteen, so now he was an inch or two shorter. He stretched upwards and pressed his open mouth against Dave’s. 

Dave returned the kiss carefully, his tongue gentle against Klaus’ eager one. Klaus pushed his hands under Dave’s white army-issue t-shirt, running them over his stomach and dipping down his back towards his arse. Dave’s hands hadn’t moved from where they rested on Klaus’ shoulders. 

Klaus pulled back.

“What’s wrong?” He tried to hide the hurt in his voice, but he was never very good at hiding from Dave. His boyfriend sighed, rubbing a calloused hand over his brow. 

“You’re so . . .”

Klaus waited for him to finish. 

He got impatient.

“Snotty? Smelly?” Klaus sniffed under his arm. “Okay, not the freshest, but Vietnam was _way_ worse -”

“Young.”

_Oh._

Dave sighed. “I just feel like, like I’m taking advantage or something. Have . . I mean . . have you even . . . ?”

Klaus snorted. By the time he was this age, Klaus had done things most people never tried in their whole life time. 

“I’m still me. Like in my head, I’m still the same age. It’s just this . . .” he said, motioning towards his body, “. . . that’s nineteen or whatever.” He gave Dave his best seductive look, the one that always worked on the boys _and_ the girls. Klaus wrapped his arms around Dave’s back, loving the way that his body shuddered as his fingers teased the top of his khaki pants. 

“Besides, I can assure you I well and truly _had_ by the time I was this age the first time around.” 

Klaus was interrupted by Nathan ranting about something in the corridor, then the low grumble of Luther’s reply.

“C’mon, we better go stop them starting another war,” Dave said. Klaus whined loudly, sagging in Dave’s arms dramatically.

All three of Klaus’ brothers stopped their bickering the moment he stepped out of the bathroom, snapping into sheepishness. Until Dave stepped out after him, holding an arm around Klaus’ waist.

Luther immediately stood up straighter, looking Dave up and down. 

“Who are you?” he blurted out.

“Luther!” Ben snapped, glaring sideways at him. 

“No, no, it’s okay. Luther, this is Dave. Dave, this is Luther, also known as Number One.”

“Lovely to meet you,” Dave said. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

He held out a hand. Luther looked at it uncertainly. 

“Oh, for the love of . . .”

Klaus reached out and grabbed Luther’s hand, pulling it towards Dave’s. 

That’s when everyone saw that Klaus’ hands were blue. Luther gasped. Nathan jumped back, before retracting his movement, stepping back to where he had been, pretending that he hadn’t been terrified that Klaus was about to summon a whole lot of killer ghosts again. 

“Klaus?” Ben asked carefully, looking at him with uncertain eyes. 

“It’s okay,” Dave said calmly. “He’s in control. I can feel it.”

“What if he . . . .er . . .not that it would be his fault or anything,” Luther stumbled, looking down at his own hands. Dave smiled kindly.

“If it changes, I can just cut the connection.”

Ben smiled widely. It sounded like the close bond Klaus and he had shared before the Apocalypse. Ben had been getting more and more say in Klaus’ power as he started to sober up and consequently gained better control over his abilities. 

He gave Klaus a nudge. Ben knew better than anyone how close their bond would have to be for Dave to have the same type of connection to Klaus. 

“Dave, this is Ben. He’s my brother. He used to be a ghostie like you,” he finished affectionately. Ben rolled his eyes. Dave laughed, shaking Ben’s hand.

Nathan turned to Dave, stepping forward like a soldier doing drills. He held out his hand. Dave took it, shuffling Klaus into his other arm. 

“I’m Nathan,” he said, smiling broadly. “So lovely to meet you, but as I’ve newly found out that Klaus and I are brothers, I’m obliged to say that if you hurt him I will have to kick you in the balls so hard they end up in your stomach.” He leaned forward seriously. “Just so we are clear.”

“You can’t fucking steal my threats,” Kelly said, striding into the corridor from the rooftop stairwell. Nathan jumped back, scampering behind Luther. 

“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery?” he tried, ducking his head out before huddling behind Luther’s huge form. 

Kelly rolled her eyes, but Klaus saw the slight lift at the corner of her mouth.

“C’mon, everyone’s upstairs waitin’ for you to wake up.”

Nathan bounded out from behind Luther and chased after Kelly. Ben started to follow, shaking his head.

“Klaus, can we have a word?” Luther asked. He was wringing the cuff of his sleeve in his other hand. 

Ben turned around, arms crossed. “What do you want Luther?”

“It’s okay Ben,” Klaus said, holding up a palm. He gave Ben a smile. “It’s fine.”

“I’m not leaving you alone with _him_ ,” Ben said, pointing at Luther. 

Dave spoke up.

“He won’t be alone.”

Luther started by pacing, glancing over at Dave before looking away. Klaus stood next to Dave, holding his proffered arm and chewing on his own cheek. He wished that Luther would just get this over with. It was going to be awkward enough.

Finally he spat the words out, blunt and artless as Luther’s words always had been. He was apologising, and from the way that he stuttered and stumbled over his words when he had been the most confident speaker after missions, Klaus could see that he meant it. 

“I know it’s not just what happened yesterday, and I know you probably can’t just get over everything like _that_ , I’m not expecting you to, but I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you and for not believing you. Last night, that was . . .that was,” Luther swallowed. When he spoke again, Klaus could hear the slight crack in his voice. “You see that all the time?”

Klaus nodded once. Luther turned away.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Klaus shrugged, rolling his shoulders lazily. “What was the point?” 

Number One’s head snapped around, eyes popping and hands held out like he always did when Klaus made a stupid comment. He stepped towards Klaus. 

“The point was that you could have trusted us! You could have come to us.” 

Dave made it clear that he wasn’t appreciating Luther approaching Klaus that quickly. Klaus felt his ghost-lover bristle, standing up a bit straighter. Luther took the hint and stopped a couple of metres short.

“And what would you have done?” Klaus asked, resigned. “You can’t stop the ghosts. There’s only one thing that will block them out.”

Understanding dawned on Luther’s face. 

“The drugs.” His voice was quiet. Klaus nodded, pressing his lips together. 

“Well, I can’t say I didn’t get high because it was fun, but yeah. The drugs are a pretty good way to get some peace and quiet. Or were, I guess I should say now.” 

Dave gave his arm a squeeze. 

“We could have helped you. You should have told us.”

Klaus smiled sadly. “What would be the point in that?”

Maybe if there was something that they could have done, some way that they could have helped, Klaus might have opened up and shared his secrets with his siblings, but nothing stopped the ghosts except a lack of sobriety. All that time they thought his powers were useless because he couldn’t get sober when he was trying to block his powers all along. He would just have to live with the screaming voices and horrible visions now. Dave relied on his ability to kick his habit. 

“I was meant to protect all of you.”

Klaus shook his head. 

“That was never your job. You just thought it was. We can all deal with our own demons.”

“Yeah, but yours are quite literally demons.”

Klaus scoffed. “Yeah, that may be true.” He looked up at his brother that wore the weight of the world on his broad shoulders. The pressure that Reggie had put on him had turned him into the sad man from the moon that stood before him. Fuck the old man.

“We don’t need a protector. We just need you.”

Klaus gave Dave’s hand a squeeze before gingerly stepped towards his brother. Why did his body feel so hollow? His wobbled as he took another step, forcing his leg muscles to try to even out the balance. Klaus looked at his brother just as his knee completely gave way. Luther reached out to catch him as Klaus flung his arms around him. 

They hugged for the first time that Klaus could remember. He sagged against his brother, letting the warm feeling take over his body, replacing the scraps of control he had left in his limbs. 

“Now use that super strength to carry me up those stairs.”

Luther ended up letting Klaus piggy-back his way up to the rooftop, which was just as well because he was not really up to walking anymore, let alone steps. Dave followed along behind. As they got to the door at the top, Klaus’ stomach dropped out. Luther coughed as Klaus’ grip tightened around his neck.

“Oh. . .sorry!” Klaus apologised, loosening his grip. 

“What’s wrong?” Luther asked. Klaus hated the tone of understanding in his voice. Klaus was sure Luther could feel his heart beating against his back. 

“They’re gonna be pissed at me.”

Luther groaned. 

“Why would they be pissed at you? They’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”

“I summoned a whole army of ghosts which they had to fight off. Nathan died. I’m pretty sure they’ll be pissed.”

Luther shook his head and pushed the door open anyway despite Klaus’ whimpering.

As soon as they stepped out onto the rooftop, he slid down Luther’s back, wanting to stand on his own. Dave was by his side immediately, slinging one of Klaus’ arms over the back of his neck, his own arm around Klaus’ waist. 

“Who the fuck is that?” Diego asked, pointing a small knife at Dave. 

“Diego, Dave. Dave, this is Diego, my brother.” Klaus looked up at the couches and mismatched chairs where everyone was gathered. It was late afternoon, the sun setting with a golden pink light. 

“This is Vanya, my sister,” Klaus introduced, pointing to his sister who was sitting cross-legged on a rusted sun lounge, next to -

“That’s Simon. We aren’t related.” Simon gave an awkward wave. Dave waved back.

“More siblings - Diego and Allison,” he said, pointing to the two of them who were standing with arms crossed. Diego had scratches that looked like a claw mark on his face and a scowl to match. 

“Those two are Curtis and Alisha.” Alisha was sitting in the V of Curtis’s legs, lying back on another sun lounge. “That’s Kelly.” She gave Dave a nod from where she was slumped on the couch. She looked exhausted. Sitting next to her, but out of arm’s reach, was Nathan.

“You’ve met Nathan, and Ben.” Ben gave a nod from where he was sitting next to Nathan and Kelly, clearly loving the icy interaction between the two. Klaus noticed that Dave’s eyes lingered over Nathan, before flashing a glance at Klaus. “Er, yeah, he’s like my twin. I just met him.” Dave gave him a curious nod.

“Last, but not least, this is Five.” Five was standing close enough that he stepped forward to shake Dave’s hand. He gave Dave his best grin, holding onto his hand far too long to be anything but menacing. 

“Army fatigues look like they’re from the late sixties - early seventies, so Vietnam.” Five looked him up and down, pacing around the two of them in a circle. “So you’re the reason Klaus stayed in that hellhole for ten months?”

“What are you talking about Five?” Allison asked with a huff. Five turned to the group, his know-it-all grin plastered over his face.

“I’m not the only time traveller of the family. Our dear Klaus went back to nineteen-sixty-eight and decided to try a bit of a career change.”

Klaus was far too sober for this. Dave shuffled him over to an old stained floral armchair, sitting down first before gathering Klaus into his lap. It felt like Dave was his own personal ghost-chair.

Diego was still pointing the knife.

“So you went back in time to the Vietnam war? What the fuck were you doing there?” Klaus tried to ignore the disdain in his voice. 

“Oh, you know, just wanted to try out a different scene. The music, the clubs and of course, the drugs - I can’t even tell you!” He tried to inject as much enthusiasm into his voice as possible. Hide, deflect. Hide, deflect.

“He fought in the front line.” Dave’s voice was strong and clear. Klaus looked away, hiding his face. “He trekked through thick jungle with a fifty pound pack on his back. He pulled guys out of the way of bombs that only he knew were there. He volunteered every time they needed someone to go out and fix a wire. He was the bravest soldier I had ever met.”

Klaus knew his face was burning red. It was another life, another time, a version of himself that he didn’t want his family knowing about. Was he embarrassed? Definitely. Ashamed? Maybe a bit of that too. 

Hide, deflect. 

He could feel Ben’s gaze boring into him. He flicked a glance up, just for a second. 

For just a second, he saw Ben’s face beaming with pride.

“So then brought this guy back?” Diego eyed Dave carefully. He had never had a serious enough relationship to bring a guy home, but he could see that having four protective brothers was going to be hell. The only thing worse was his two overbearing sisters. 

“Well, not exactly.” Klaus swallowed carefully. 

“I died.” Dave finished. Klaus looked up at Diego, waiting for the realisation to set in.

And, there. 

His eyes darted to Klaus’ hands that he had tried to keep hidden under his thighs with little success due to their blue glow. Panic rippled through the group, Simon actually pulled his feet off the ground as it that was going to help. 

“It’s okay,” Dave assured, in that voice that made Klaus feel so safe that he’d follow him anywhere. “I’m not like the others. I can . . . control it.”

Ben broke the silence. 

“He’s right. When I was dead, I could do the same thing, just this guy was never sober enough for me to get good at it.”

He winked at Klaus. Just for him. He had Ben. No matter what the others thought of him, he still had Ben. 

The community service kids watched on dumbstruck. Kelly spoke up.

“So youse guys have powers too?” she asked, pointing around at the group at the Umbrella Academy. “What are they?”

Diego released his knife, letting it bend around in a u-turn before embedding in the couch between Nathan’s outstretched legs. 

“Fuck! Stop doing that!” Nathan yelled, climbing up to sit on the back of the couch. Kelly looked very impressed and amused at the same time. 

“I can control sound waves, I think,” Vanya offered. “I’ve just started practicing.”

“She was pretty fucking good at it if you ask me,” Nathan added. “She was all like _whoosh_ and that ghost that said I shat in her bed was gone.” 

Almost everyone groaned. Klaus smiled. 

“It was really good, Vanya,” Luther said, sounding nothing like Luther. She smiled shyly, letting it creep into a beaming grin. 

“I can get people to do things,” Allison said, looking around the group. 

“What do you mean?” Alisha asked skeptically.

“Show us,” Kelly half-asked, half-demanded. The group’s eyes fell on Nathan. He realised and rolled his eyes. 

“C’mon, why am I always the guinea pig?”

“Because you’re so fucking annoying,” Kelly replied, quick as a whip.

Allison flashed her a Hollywood smile. She walked up to Nathan and leaned in his ear. 

“I heard a rumour that you couldn’t talk for the next five minutes.”

Kelly made an excited moan. “Oh please tell me that works!”

Nathan pulled a face and then said something that could have been ‘fuck you’ or ‘fondue’, but no-one could tell for sure because no sound came out. He kept trying in vain to the delight of the other community service kids. Even Simon was laughing. 

“That is the best power ever!” Curtis declared, laughing at Nathan. He responded by flipping him the bird. 

After another five minutes of teasing, Kelly turned to Luther. “You must be super strong, yeah?” She looked over at Ben beside her. “And you have those,” she wiggled her arms to emphasise the Horror. Ben nodded slowly. Kelly turned to Five. “I know what you can do with your flashy shit.”

Five arched an eyebrow. “Flashy - _flashy shit_? I’ll have you know I can also travel in time.”

Ben scoffed behind his hand. “And look how well that turned out.”

Five flashed above Ben and slapped him in the back of the head before returning to his spot, smoothing out his collar. 

“What’s that mean?” Alisha asked. Diego was already fidgeting with another knife.

“It means he time travelled when he was thirteen, got stuck in the future until he was fifty-eight and is now stuck back in his little teeny-weeny body.”

That earned Diego a kick in the shins. Once Five had returned again to his spot and the red had started to recede from his face, he spoke. 

“Why don’t you share with the group how old all of you are?” Five taunted.

Diego smirked. “Being twenty-nine and stuck in the body of a nineteen-year-old is a lot better than getting stuck in puberty.”

“Hang on, you’re twenty-nine?” Kelly asked loudly, holding her palms out. 

“I’m thirty!” Klaus said proudly. “Ten months older mofos. Oh, you know what that means?” Klaus exclaimed, pouting. “I missed my dirty thirty!” He leaned into Dave, who rubbed his back even though Klaus was pretty sure he had no idea what a dirty thirty was.

Five ignored him.

“We time travelled back to prevent the end of the world.”

“After causing the end of the world,” Ben said under his breath. Kelly flashed him a startled look. Five glared at him, before schooling his expression into something more business-like. 

“So what’s his power?” Curtis mumbled, looking sideways at Klaus. Everyone went as silent as Nathan.

“I can see ghosts, and as I have recently found out, I can make them corporeal.” Klaus tried not to let his voice shake. How he hated his power and yet, how grateful he was that he could be sitting with the cold but solid presence of Dave behind him. As if he could read his mind, Dave shifted his arms around Klaus’ waist, holding him. 

“That’s. . .cool. . I guess?” Curtis said, fumbling over his useless words.

“It’s hell.” It wasn’t Klaus who spoke. Everyone’s heads swung to Ben. Klaus glared at his brother. He forgot how Ben never like to mess around with smoke and mirrors, he was always painfully honest and to the point, which hadn’t mattered so much when Klaus was the only one who could see him, but now that he could speak to other people, Klaus wasn’t ready for the uncertainty of what his brother might reveal about his own private side.

“It’s - you can’t even imagine. I mean, there’s good bits, like the fact I could talk to him the whole time I was dead -”

“ _Whole time you were dead?_ ” Alisha repeated, frowning. Ben waved her comment away with his hand.

“I died when I was around this age. Klaus was the only one who could see me after.”

All of Klaus’ siblings shifted where they stood, uncomfortable in the reminder that they hadn’t believed their brother when he had told them he could see their Number Six. 

“But the bad bits, they’re bad. The dead that tend to hang around as ghosts aren’t the nice ones. They’re the ones who died violent deaths, who have scores to settle -”

“Unfinished business,” Simon murmured, suddenly self conscious that he had spoken out loud. Klaus gave him a small smile. 

“They’re everywhere. All the time. Every day - and they are so loud.”

Everyone looked away. Except Kelly. She looked at Klaus. 

“That must be shit.”

Of course, Klaus thought. Kelly who could hear what people were thinking, whether she wanted to or not. Fuck, he could not imagine having to hear what people thought about him all day. It was bad enough the times they said it out loud. 

“So what happened last night?” Vanya asked kindly, leaning forwards to look at Klaus. “I mean, you’ve never had that happen before?” 

Klaus sighed, fidgeting with the bandage on his wrist. 

“I haven’t been sober like this before either, not for a long time. Back in the theatre, something changed with my powers, they got stronger. I don’t know why.”

“Your powers are linked to your emotions,” Five said simply. Klaus looked at his palms. That made sense. He had been so worried about his siblings and letting them down in the theatre. He wanted to help them. He was scared they were going to die.

“I’m sorry,” Luther said clearly. Klaus knew he was referring to their fight in the hall when everything kicked off. He wasn’t just saying it for Klaus. He wanted everyone to hear him. Diego rolled his eyes, but looked satisfied. 

Klaus waved Luther away. 

“I deserved it, I was being a dick.” He kept talking to stop Ben who was about to butt in. “Anyways, it wasn’t entirely your fault. I did something stupid.”

Klaus ran his hands over his face, leaning his elbows on his knees. Dave moved with him, supporting but not crowding. He wasn’t ready to talk about this but the thought of putting it off and having to worry about when they would bring it up again was worse. He couldn’t face that sort of anticipation, not when he was so worn down. 

“Just before the Apocalypse, I was like three days sober. Then we travelled back in time and got dumped in our nineteen year old bodies, which was fine, apart from how my nineteen year old body was not quite so sober.” 

Luther tipped his head back, eyes closed, as if he was finally realising what had happened. 

“So yeah, that sucked, falling back of the wagon without actually having any choice, but y’know, life goes on. Problem is that my powers aren’t like how they were when I was young, they’re stronger.” 

Dave gripped a hand firmly on Klaus’ shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Klaus took a deep breath. He had to get this out, he had to keep going.

“I guess I didn’t really adjust.”

Klaus covered his face, blowing out a breath that he didn’t realise was trapped. He couldn’t say it out loud, it was too selfish, but if he was being honest with himself he would admit that he was lonely. Every high and low he experienced over the last thirteen years, he had Ben to help him, to guide him, to tell him when he was being a dick. He didn’t always listen - he hardly ever listened - but he wasn’t alone. He missed Ben, but how could he begrudge his brother’s second chance at living his life? He would never want to do that, but Ben had been with him for the last thirteen years. He was there during some of the hardest times in his life, all to himself. Then suddenly, Ben had his own life back and their exclusive relationship was no longer just his. 

He pushed on. He had to keep going.

“Then I was an arsehole to Ben and I missed Dave so I came up with the bright idea of cold turkey while my powers were stronger than they had ever been. _That_ was a stupid idea, let me tell you. There were so many ghosts and they all wanted something, then there was her. I should have realised straight away, but I was stupid.”

“There was who?” Allison asked. 

“Sally.” Simon’s voice was startlingly loud. He furrowed his brow, knees drawn up to his chest in perfect symmetry. 

“The probation worker?” Nathan blurted. He stretched his mouth experimentally, moving his jaw with his hand. “Oh thank God, that was awful!” He shot Allison a dagger-filled glare. Kelly clamped her hand over his mouth to silence him.

“What did she have to do with it?” Kelly asked, turning to Simon. He shifted uncomfortably on the couch before looking up at Klaus. 

“At the start, she listened to me. She wanted to be my friend. I couldn’t talk to anyone else, but she would always ask how I was. She was so kind.” Simon’s expression became pained, his brow creasing further. He smoothed down his fringe, even though it already lay perfectly flat. 

Klaus sighed. “I’ll give it to her, she was a good actor. I fell for it harder than when I fell down stairs in high heels.” He laughed at his own little joke, his voice cracking slightly. Everyone else was listening with baited breath. He sighed and went on. “I told her everything. I handed my deepest darkest secrets to a ghost who only I was able to see. It’s like, I’ve done some pretty dumb, self destructive shit over the years, but that had to take the cake.”

The tightening of Dave’s grip on his shoulder was what drew Klaus’ attention to the fact that he was shaking. He had to get this out quickly before the wave that was threateningly building deep in his gut overwhelmed him. 

“When she didn’t get what she wanted, she literally haunted me, but it was like haunting on steroids. She knew exactly what to say, exactly how to get inside my head.” Klaus shuddered

“What did she want?” Five asked, hands dug into his pockets. Klaus didn’t respond. Five already knew the answer. 

“Vengeance,” his brother finished for him. 

Simon’s face paled even further. The other community service crew all exchanged glances. 

“It was an accident,” Simon said, his voice small. 

“I know,” Klaus said warmly, giving Simon a small smile. He returned it uncertainly, his lips pressed together before he looked back down. He pushed on. 

“I let her get too far in. Then,” Klaus could almost hear his father’s voice in his head. _Four! You need to apply yourself to your training._ “ I lost control of my powers.” Klaus rubbed his chin, trying to clamp down against the hollowness that was threatening to overcome him. 

“How did you stop her?” Luther asked. 

Klaus took Dave’s other hand in his own. 

“Dave found me.” The empty feeling slowed down, simmering rather than rolling through his body. “He got her to let me go, then, I don’t know . . .” He looked up at Dave, twisting around. “What did you do?” 

It had felt a bit like what happened with Ben when his ghost-brother had slapped the pills out of Klaus’ mouth only a week ( _a week?_ ) earlier. Klaus definitely had not meant to let his brother stop him from getting high, in fact, he’d been pretty pissed off but Ben could still do it. Ben could use his power. Maybe Dave could too?

“I just gave you a little nudge. You were the one that got control back over your power.” Klaus highly doubted that was true, but he was glad that Dave had told his family that. He very much did not have control of his power. It was all impulse, impulses based on emotions that he had no control over. The terror started to creep back.

“So basically, it’s this and hope that I don’t pull another stunt like last night,” he said, waving his blue hands, “or I give this whole sobriety habit the kick.”

The panic rose sharply. He couldn’t push it away.

Hide, deflect.

“I’m starving. I’ll go order us some pizza, but someone else with have to pay because I’m broke!” He jumped off Dave’s lap and staggered towards the stairs.

“Klaus!” Luther shouted. “Come back and talk to us!”

Klaus waved his _goodbye_ hand and tottered down the stairs. He could hear Vanya tell Luther to leave him be. 

He was exhausted by the time he got to the probation worker’s office at the bottom of the stairs. He swiped the pizza shop flyer off the notice board in the foyer on the way, then slumped into the uncomfortable office chair. He said he would order pizzas, and now he had to do it. There was also the chance that doing something normal would snap him out of this horrible, overwhelming feeling. He dialed the number and ordered ten large pizzas, letting the kid on the other side of the call decide on what they should be. He couldn’t work out if that was enough, he couldn’t even count up how many people there were, but with Luther eating, there would never be enough. 

He hung up the phone. His thoughts were still waiting for him. 

Klaus knew he wanted to stay sober. He didn’t want to be the disaster anymore. As much as it had made him feel uncomfortable, part of him liked how Ben had looked at him when Dave told them of his time in Vietnam. He wanted them to be proud of him. And of course, he wanted to be able to see Dave. 

But then there were the ghosts. They had driven him almost mad only after a couple of days of sobriety. What if he lost control again? What if they killed someone again? It was so lucky that it was Nathan who had been killed. What if it had been Vanya? Or Ben? Or even Luther? 

He pulled his legs up to the chair, hugging his knees into his chest. 

Could he handle a lifetime of fighting it? Klaus knew he couldn’t. Dave was wrong, he wasn’t brave. He’d be back to drugs or worse. He had thought about it before when things had been bleak, but now ending it all didn’t even seem like an option he would have thanks to the little girl-God. 

What was the point of him?

His attention was caught by the door edging open. Klaus schooled his features into something that could have passed off as tired.

It was Ben. He had lost the sassy expression he had been wearing the last few days, instead replaced by the sadness that he had followed Klaus around with as a ghost. Klaus yawned animatedly. 

“Sorry Benny-boy, I must have nodded off. These chairs are surprisingly comfortable. Not to worry, I ordered the pizzas before my cat nap.” Klaus stood up slowly, stretching. His body ached so he didn’t need to put it on much to convince Ben he was feeling stiff. Ben stepped in the room, watching Klaus with an unnerving seriousness.

“I think I might go have a nap,” Klaus declared. He tried to squeeze past Ben but his brother grabbed him firmly around the arm. 

“Klaus, we need to talk.”

Klaus yawned again. “Can it wait Bentacles? I’m so tired.”

“No, it can’t.”

Ben slammed the door shut so loudly Klaus actually jumped. 

“Jeepers Ben! Scared the bejeezus out of me!” 

Klaus wasn’t lying. He was scared. His heart was racing. He was trapped in a small room with the one person who he couldn’t escape from.

Ben pulled him down to the floor and sat opposite Klaus, cross-legged. Klaus copied him, fingers tapping rapidly on the scratchy cheap carpet. 

“I know what you’re thinking,” Ben started.

“That I should have ordered twelve pizzas? You’re right, Luther will have like four on his own. I’ll just call them back -”

Ben pulled him back down with more force than Klaus thought his smaller brother could wield. 

“Klaus, your shit won’t work on me. Just drop the act.”

Klaus looked away, staring at the filing cabinet in the corner. It was devoid of any colour. It was not even white, or grey or beige. Just colourless. Klaus let his mind focus on the cabinet to stop it from wandering to thinking about the panic rising inside his stomach.

“I know that you’re thinking that you have two choices: drugs or torture.”

 _Fuck you Ben._ Klaus had only just worked that one out. How did Ben already know what he was thinking?

“I was with you every day for thirteen years.”

Klaus clicked his tongue. He was like a fucking mind reader. 

Fine, he’d play.

“Okay, fine, so what if that was what I was thinking? It’s true. I can see Dave now, but only if I risk killing all my siblings from losing control of my powers. Or I can go back to my wild ways and get rid of the terrifying ghosts, oh, but then I can’t see Dave and you’ll all hate me.”

Klaus was gesticulating wildly, suddenly angry. Why shouldn’t he be angry? It was so fucking unfair.

“Klaus, talk to me,” Ben demanded. 

“And say what?”

“How you’re feeling.”

“I’m fine. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t dealt with this my whole life.” He pointed up at the roof. “The only reason they’re even being nice to me up there is because they feel shit realising that I wasn’t lying this whole time about the ghosties.” 

“That isn’t true Klaus.”

Klaus tilted his head and glared at Ben. His brother sighed.

“Okay, so it’s a little true, but it’s not the only reason. They might not always act like it, but they love you.”

Klaus scoffed, shaking his head. 

“No, they love you. They love Vanya. They’re ashamed of me.”

Ben shrugged. “Maybe they were before Dad died, but that’s because they barely knew you. You shut them out. You showed them a person that they could ignore, a selfish, messed up junkie who didn’t give a fuck about anyone.”

“So this is my fault?” Klaus asked, his voice surprisingly loud. 

“Yeah, not completely, but yeah.” 

Klaus stood up. 

“Thanks Ben, I was already covering the self-loathing quite well, but I guess now I won’t have to worry about running out of things to feel shit about myself over.”

Ben was on his feet faster than Five, blocking the door. 

“This is so fucking typical of you Klaus. Always trying to give everyone else an out so they don’t have to feel shit about themselves for giving up on you. It’s not going to work on me. You are worth their attention Klaus, you are worth their effort.”

Klaus let out a broken laugh, hands on his hips. 

“We both know that I am not.”

“And this here, Klaus, is the actual problem. You don’t let anyone in because you don’t think you deserve their care.”

Ben stepped forward into Klaus’ space. The desk stopped Klaus from moving back. 

“But I don’t give a shit about what you think because you don’t actually get to make that decision for us.”

Klaus crumpled, dropping to his knees. Ben followed him down, his movements controlled. He was so tired.

“I can’t keep doing this, I can’t keep the ghosts away.”

Ben held Klaus’ shoulders, waiting until his brother looked into his eyes. “You’re not doing it alone this time. You’ll have all of us, you’ll have Dave.” He smirked. “You’ll also have Nathan, but he probably won’t be much help.”

Klaus’ lips curved into a smile, broadening as he thought about how lucky he was to have his Ben.

“C’mon, go have a shower, then the pizzas will be here by the time you get out. You stink.”

Half an hour later, after a shower and changing back into his own clothes and a fluffy knitted coat that Ben insisted he wore for warmth, Klaus returned to the rooftop. The whole gang were sitting around eating pizza, laughing at Nathan who was standing in the middle with a soft drink can balanced on his head. 

“Ready?” Diego asked, clearly enjoying himself. He was holding a knife ready to throw from the opposite edge of the rooftop.

“No!” Nathan wailed. 

Kelly threw a pizza crust at him. “What are you whining about? You’re immortal.”

Diego threw the knife while Nathan was distracted, hitting the can right in the middle. Nathan screamed, flailing as he ran away to hide behind the couch amid roars of laughter. 

Luther spotted Klaus and made a beeline for him. Klaus shuffled back instinctively. Ben gave him a shove. 

“Here, I saved you some plain cheese.” Luther thrust the box towards Klaus. He accepted it, smiling. He didn’t even think Luther cared what his favourite pizza was. The fact it was actually mushroom didn’t matter. 

Klaus found Dave biting into a piece of pizza with pineapple on it. He sat next to him, cuddling up against him with the cheese pizza in his lap. Dave wrapped his arm around Klaus, still holding the pizza. It would be weird having a ghost as a boyfriend, but no weirder than some of the other people he’d been with over the years. Dave was a good guy and he treated Klaus like he was the most important thing in the world. Even as a ghost, he was fucking hot. He and Klaus had only managed to have sex in Vietnam in the back of seedy bars or in a rush when they were fortunate enough to be the last ones in the showers. One time they had booked overnight leave and been able to share a cheap hotel room for the whole night, long enough for Klaus to teach Dave a thing or two without interruption. He hoped he remembered his lessons. Klaus felt a stir in his loose flowy pants. That had been a bad decision. Klaus hoped Dave was up for taking care of that situation later on. 

“Hey Five, you never made your big announcement at dinner last night,” Allison called out from the sun lounge that she was using as a table.

“I guess now’s as good a time as any. I’ve been doing research.”

The Umbrella Academy let out a collective groan. Five rolled his eyes.

“Anyways, I found out a few interesting things. One was that Nathan didn’t get his powers from the storm.”

“What?” Nathan cried out theatrically.

Five raised his eyebrows.

“You were born on the same day as the other forty-two babies born to women who were not pregnant on the first of October, nineteen-eighty-nine, you have the power of immortality, and you have a twin brother who just so happens to have another power also concerned with life and death and you think your power came from a storm? Pffft. I don’t even need to calculate the probability to tell you how unlikely that is.” 

Nathan’s brow creased as he tried to follow what Five was saying.

“You’ve had your power since the moment you were born dead.”

Luther groaned, turning away. Klaus heard Allison mutter something about tact under her breath. 

“What are you saying Five?” Vanya asked.

“Nathan died during his birth, just like they said, but there wasn’t a mix up. His power brought him back to life. He’s always been immortal.”

He turned to Klaus.

“From the numbers I’ve run so far, it also seems likely that you would be able to access each other’s powers.”

Uh-oh.

“It’s not just likely,” Ben interrupted pointedly. 

“What are you talking about Ben?”

“Ben!” Klaus hissed, waving wildly at him to stop.

“When we were chasing after Luther on his bender, he pissed off this guy who was going to sock him with a baseball bat. Klaus jumped in and cracked his head on the concrete.” Everyone looked at him wide eyed apart from Klaus who was hiding his face in his arms.

“ _Ben_ ,” he mumbled, willing him to stop.

“He died.”

The uproar was instantaneous, but expected. That’s how Klaus’ family operated, all yelling and shouting before any actual thinking happened. 

What Klaus didn’t expect was Dave to slide out from under him and jump to his feet, eyes boring into Luther. Klaus struggled to his own feet, trying to catch up with his boyfriend.

“Dave, Davey, Ben’s just being overly dramatic -” 

“I wish you were coming with us.”

The Umbrella Academy were all packed up the next morning, ready to leave the community centre. Five had a theory that someone had nudged them through the timeline to south-east London, knowing that they would meet Nathan and therefore question where the other thirty-five babies were. Five’s plan was to search around Europe and the UK to find those that survived.

The community service kids had all come out to see them off. Dave was there too, but Klaus was saving his energy and left him in ghost-form. He’d fallen asleep before they had been able to even get their pants off the night before. He had big plans for tonight. 

Klaus smiled at his siblings. He had decided to stay for a week. He wanted to visit his birth mother with Nathan, then they both had plans to join the Umbrella Academy on their world tour. Five had managed to get in touch with Pogo who wired them all some funds through Nathan’s account. Diego had made sure that Klaus was given plenty, although he’d already decided to spend part of it on getting his tattoos replaced at Kelly’s mate’s shop. 

Klaus hugged all of his siblings, his biggest hug for Ben, who was crying.

“We’ll see you soon,” Klaus promised, rubbing his brother’s back. He noticed his own eyes were wet. Fucking Ben. 

Klaus, Dave and Nathan watched the rest of the Academy walk away along the river. 

“Fuck, can’t believe I’m starting my sobriety in Amsterdam!”


End file.
